Grave's New Life
by Nanya
Summary: The adventures of Grave and Ranma on Earth. Will Nerima survive? Rating changed to M for language purposes.
1. Prolouge

Grave's New Life  
  
Prologue  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Gold Digger, Fred Perry does. I don't own Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi does.  
  
This is an A.U. fic. It happens before the start of the Ranma 1/2 manga and during issue 47 of Volume 2 of the Black and White series of Gold Digger.  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
It was late at night, the moon was out, the stars were shining, a cold wind was blowing and all this was over-looking a beautiful landscape of mountains and caves. Inside one of the caves, there was a fire going on, and sitting in front of it was a person with golden-blonde hair with brown spots, this person was about five foot six. She was female and had a fur coat that was yellow with black spots and a white undercoat. She had an eye stripe over her right eye, a slender build, greenish eyes with a touch of blue in them, she was sitting around the fire in just a rather torn up hospital gown, rags really, and it was barely holding itself together. The girl had human ears and a tail, she didn't have a real name, but rather she went by the name Grave Digger, one she had given herself. She shivered as she sat in front of the fire, she didn't want to risk going to any town, cause she knew that she was unloved, un-cared for and everyone wanted to kill her.  
  
"After all," Grave said irritably. "Everyone I've ever met has wanted me dead. From Genn, Britanny, and Gina to those Edge Guard, Mages and Brianna."  
  
The petite girl, who looked like a Werecheetah in hybrid form, shivered as a strong gust of wind came up. She couldn't afford to go to any civilization or see any people; they just kill her on sight and not ask questions. Oh sure, she wanted to kill off Britanny Elin Diggers and Gina Babette Diggers, but that was only so that she could make her own light, be her own person. As long as those two remained, she'd always just be a mere shadow of them. "Why couldn't Brianna see that? We are nothing more than a mere clone of those two." Grave then frowned deeply. "Is she right? Does she actually have her own life even with her "sisters" still living?" Grave shook her head. "That's impossible. There's no way that Brianna has her own life."  
  
Grave thought back to what happened when she and Brianna split off.  
  
Flashback . . .  
  
Grave looked around, she wasn't showing it, but she was damn scared right now, she had just heard Brianna whisper to her that these Mages were going to kill her, well hell with that, she wanted to live, she glanced at Sheila, a petite Jagwere, and gave a look that screamed, 'I thought you were my friend. Why did you try to have me killed?'  
  
Grave raised a hand up and blasted a hole in the roof and started levitating up. She blinked as she saw the mages standing around. 'Aren't they going to kill me? Am I too powerful for them?' She shook her head, 'No way, they were able to split me and Brianna apart, they just want to trick me so that they can kill me when the moment is right when I let my guard down.' She frowned. "Okay old folks, try this, Lightning Bolt!"  
  
Grave thrust her hand forward and a bolt of electrical energy arched toward the mages who sought to kill her. Grave gasped as she saw the old Werecat, the one who split them, deflect her shot with no problem.  
  
It got worse when Brianna called for something called the L.B.D. Grave didn't know what that was, but then suddenly a reclining chair with a bunch of weapons; cluster bombs, lasers, gatling guns and a whole slew of other weapons showed up to try and kill her.  
  
She dodged the first strike easily enough, but then Brianna got into the chair of that thing and started firing back, for some reason, none of her magic blasts were phasing the darn thing. She was able to trick Brianna into firing at her by staying still long enough for Brianna to fire some bullets at her, she merely teleported herself right next to Brianna and watched, horrified, though she looked rather smug, as the mage deflected the bullets easily.  
  
Even though she was terrified at the moment, she still had a smirk going, that is until she looked at Brianna, who was pointing a quad-magnum blaster in her face. Fortunately for Grave, Brianna had the safety on and it allowed her to get away from the direct path of the bullets.  
  
Grave flew out of the way and was prepared to fight back in earnest when suddenly the bullets, or Peebees as they were called, started moving on their own and started blasting her in earnest. This continued for several minutes and when Grave finally had a chance, she teleported out of the explosions. She hid it well, but she was hurting terribly. Her clothing was in tatters and her hair was in disarray.  
  
She had to avoid the Peebees for some time, but then smirked when she saw that the Peebees attacked anything that was acting like a bad guy. She glanced over when she felt a lot of magic being used, she was deathly afraid that one of those Mages got their acts together and was about to kill her, but was surprised when a non-magic was fighting that Werecat that split her and Brianna apart. She'd watch it after she took those Peebees out. She flew to where Brianna could see her and spread her arms out to show the destruction that the Peebees were causing. "Oh Brianna! Oh, you horrible villain you! Just look at the destruction that you caused to this peaceful little town! You must be the most foul, despicable, HATEFUL, EVIL villain of ALL time!!! Have you no HEART?!"  
  
Grave giggled at the fact that Brianna's own attack turned against her and blew up her L.B.D. and knocked her silly. She then turned back to watch the mage and non-mage fight. She started shivering when she felt such strong magic spells being used. She was even more frightened when the non- mage just shrugged off most of the magic like it was nothing. Finally the mage used some kind of super spell that would've killed nearly anyone, and the non-mage used her weapon and seriously hurt the mage.  
  
Grave shivered, she didn't want to meet that fate; she wanted to live.  
  
Meanwhile down below Genn was watching Grave and wondering why she wasn't doing a thing but standing, err, floating there.  
  
Grave shook her head violently and started chanting, softly at first, but with increasing loudness. "I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die. I don't want to die." She then glared at everyone that was still there. "I'M GOING TO LIVE!!!" She then turned and teleported herself out of Seer's Hamlet and continued to fly and teleport till she got to the mountains to rest.  
  
Back at Nali's clinic, or what was left of it, Sheila turned to Genn. "What did she mean by 'I'm going to live' Genn?"  
  
Genn shook her head. "I have no idea."  
  
End Flashback . . .  
  
So now Grave was sitting here, scared, confused, cold, hungry, tired, hurt and a bunch of other stuff. She had no illusions what would happen if she went to a town. They'd grab her; hold her until someone came to kill her. She wasn't stupid. "Everyone wants me dead. There isn't a soul out there that understands this."  
  
********  
  
Meanwhile on Earth, in China . . .  
  
A small redheaded girl, petite, yet very well endowed girl, about five foot five and a half, wearing a training Gi, hair done up in a pigtail, blue eyes and carrying a rather large backpack was currently running, with a heavy-set panda, who was amazingly, running upright on it's hind legs, and carrying a backpack just as large as the girl's was.  
  
The girl stopped and sneezed a bit before addressing the panda. "So now what? That crazy Amazon chick won't stop chasing me until she kills me. I can't believe that she's such a sore loser."  
  
"Growlf!" The panda exclaimed and held up a sign that, amazingly, had words on in. *Boy! Don't underestimate her! Sure, she's a weakling, but she's determined to kill you."  
  
The girl frowned. "I know that pops. I mean, I understand that she wasn't happy about us eating the food, but I mean, she really shouldn't have taken it that hard." Most people would think that the redhead was nuts, calling a panda her father, but they were people who didn't understand what had happened to her.  
  
To understand, we must slip back a couple of days to when the girl, a boy at the time, who was named Ranma Saotome and his father Genma Saotome arrived at Jusenkyo, the pools of sorrow. Ranma and his father Genma were both powerful martial artists in their own right. Seeing the training grounds, both were disappointed as they had thought that it was going to be a place with incredible dangerous training, not just a bunch of pools with bamboo sticking out of them.  
  
The two jumped to separate poles and began sparring by jumping at each other and attacking. Eventually, Ranma got a good shot in on his father, who fell into a pool and stayed there for a few minutes. What came out surprised the young man, a panda, who apparently knew martial arts and was able to deck him a good one, sending him into a pool of his own. When Ranma resurfaced, he was a she. She had gotten incredibly mad and had attacked the panda, chasing him all over until she calmed down. Then the guide who led them to this place had told them about what had happened and had told them how to reverse the effects temporarily.  
  
Ranma shook her head about that and glared at the panda. If he hadn't eaten that feast, she wouldn't have had to fight that crazy chick. Contrary to popular belief, especially since Genma had taught her otherwise, Ranma didn't believe that girls were weak and stupid. While she didn't like fighting them, she knew that thinking that girls were weak was stupid, any fighter who underestimated another because of their gender was just begging for an ass kicking.  
  
"Growlf!" *Boy! I've got an idea.*  
  
"What? Something like the N-n-n-Neko-ken again? Going to use that to try and get this crazy chick off of us?"  
  
"Growlf!" *No! I've got something that'll get you away from her! It was something my M-m-m-Master gave to me before he left.*  
  
Ranma blinked. "Oh?"  
  
The panda nodded and produced another sign. *Yes. A scroll of escape. I can't cast it on myself to escape, but I can cast it on you to escape.*  
  
Ranma blinked, Genma had never done anything like this before. "Why you doin' this? There's gotta be a reason for it."  
  
*If you die, then they're be no one to continue our school.*  
  
Ranma groaned. "At least you're honest this time."  
  
The panda nodded and reached into the backpack and took out a thermos with just a bit of warm water and splashed himself, in his place was a rather portly man by the name of Genma Saotome, who was wearing a dingy Gi, a bandanna on his head and glasses. "Now boy, just stand still, this will only take a second."  
  
Ranma nodded, she was wondering what the heck was going on when Genma started to chant and the area was glowing brightly. Genma meant to send Ranma to the Tendos so that they could fulfill the engagement by the time he arrived. Unfortunately, Shampoo showed up. "Girl-type Ranma! Shampoo KILL!!" It was enough to startle Genma just as he said the last word and then Ranma was gone in a flash of light.  
  
Genma blinked. "Crap! I didn't have a destination in mind. Ranma could be anywhere."  
  
"What fat man talking about?"  
  
Genma scowled and turned to the girl. "This is all your fault, prepare yourself for the might of Anything Goes."  
  
Three minutes later, Genma stood triumphantly over a thoroughly beaten Shampoo, Genma had to admit that the girl had a bit of skill, but she was just slow, weak, sloppy and pathetic in comparison to his son, though against most other fighters her age, she would be able to defeat them. "Not bad girl." Genma said as he walked away. "But you aren't even at my level, not to mention the boy, err, girl's level." Genma frowned as he continued to walk away. "How am I supposed to tell Soun? Or even," Genma gulped. "No-chan that some crazy Amazon may have just killed Ranma off?"  
  
********  
  
Back on Jade . . .  
  
Grave was surprised when a white light appeared above her and a small redhead with a large backpack fell out and crashed down on top of her, knocking her out.  
  
Ranma, or rather Ranma-chan, groaned as she got up, she blinked when she saw a body was underneath her. She marveled at the look, the girl was exotic, extremely so, and furry, and amazingly, to Ranma at least, she had a tail sticking out her body, just above her butt, but she was shivering as another blast of cold air came through the cave. Ranma shivered a bit seeing that the tail was so c-c-c-cat-like, but with the exception of the tail, the fur and her right eye-stripe, she looked human, he then frowned as he saw what she was wearing, a torn up hospital gown, indicating some kind of fight. She quickly got off of the girl, grabbed a blanket or two and wrapped the shivering girl up so that she'd get warm.  
  
Ranma-chan frowned. "I wonder what happened to her."  
  
Several minutes later, the girl continued to shiver from the cold air, Ranma-chan had to admit that the air was chilly, though not as bad as when the time when the old man had her, before she got the curse, run naked through the mountains in a winter snowstorm.  
  
The redhead just had to wonder how long the girl had been out in the cold with just the gown on. Seeing the girl continue to shiver, Ranma-chan sighed, she heard the girl mumble something about how everyone hated her and wanted her dead. Ranma-chan could sympathize a bit, being on the road most of her life with her pop and usually on the run from angry shop- keepers and now a psycho Amazon who wanted to kill her, she understood it a bit. Ranma-chan pulled the blankets off a little and crawled in with the poor girl. When she was situated properly, she wrapped the blankets around her and then pulled the other girl, so that her back was to Ranma-chan's front and discovered something that shocked her, 'She's freezing!' Ranma- chan thought in surprise. She pulled the cold body to her and hugged the girl, pressing her front to the girl's back. The fuzzy girl started shifting back to get closer to the warmth that she was feeling. Ranma-chan looked at the fire that was there and shook her head, that fire was barely big enough for a small campfire; it was nowhere near big enough to keep a person warm, even if they had a fur coat.  
  
Eventually, after several minutes, the girl calmed down as her body quit shivering so much and she started to relax and rest. Ranma-chan smiled a bit, normally she wouldn't even try to get into the bed of a girl, no matter how cute they were, and this girl was very cute, however, Ranma-chan had nothing against getting into a girl's bed to warm them up if it would save their life. Ranma-chan shook her head. "Just who are you? And just what happened to you?" Seeing no answer forthcoming, Ranma-chan decided to get a bit of rest and snuggled up to the girl and dozed off.  
  
After about thirty minutes Grave cracked an eye open and blinked. 'What the heck? Why am I inside a blanket? Why is it so, so warm?' She frowned trying to think as to why she was there, she knew she hadn't gone to town to get anything it was just too risky. 'Let's see, the last thing I remember is a light and then someone crashing down on me and. .' Grave lost her train of thought as she felt a warm body pressed up against hers. Grave gasped. 'Okay Grave, think. This person could've killed me when I was asleep if they wanted to.' She then frowned. 'Unless they wanted me awake so that they see what they're up against.' She growled and jumped out of bed, startling Ranma-chan enough to wake her up.  
  
Ranma-chan blinked, the girl was up and moving now. "So you're finally awake huh?"  
  
Grave glared at her. "So, I guess you're here to kill me as well."  
  
Ranma-chan blinked. "Huh? Take it easy, you were freezing to death."  
  
Grave sneered at her. "You're just like the others, all the people I've ever met wants me dead!" Grave started powering up and Ranma-chan knew that she didn't want to be in the way of what ever the furry girl had planned. "I'm not letting you get the chance to kill me!" Grave fired a raw magic blast at Ranma-chan, fortunately for Ranma-chan's supplies, the redhead had moved so that her back was facing the cave's entrance.  
  
Ranma-chan ducked the blast as it flew overhead; unfortunately, several trees in the forest outside the cave were not so lucky. "GAH, WAIT, WAIT! I'M NOT HERE TO HURT YOU!"  
  
Grave had tears rolling down her face. "Yeah right! Everyone wants me dead! From that shape changer Genn, to my "sisters" Britanny, Gina and Brianna, to those Mages and those Edge Guard. Everyone HATES ME!!"  
  
Grave threw another blast, this time a fireball at the redhead, who dodged it, but winced as the heat from it passed by her. "Listen to me, I don't hate you, I don't even know you." Ranma-chan frowned. "And I don't want you dead. I'm serious. I just showed up here and saw you freezing so I tried to help warm you up."  
  
Grave frowned, but started to calm down since this girl in front of her had yet to make any threatening moves towards her, but then she started remembering her short life and how no one was nice to her, it caused tears to start flowing down her face. "I know what you plan to do. You plan to get me to lower my guard so that others can come and kill me."  
  
Her whole body shook with silent sobs as she tried to hold back tears, Grave looked at the ground as she spoke. "Everyone's like that, trust them a little bit and then they stab you in the back, using someone else to get rid of you. I trusted Gina when we first met, and that was just a distraction so that Cheetah could take my weapon and try to kill me when I said I cared for the same guy she did. I wasn't going to do a thing to Sheila and she and her brother got Genn to try and make me go away." The Lycanthropoid tossed her head up and glared at Ranma-chan. "You'll just do the same thing the first chance you get."  
  
Ranma-chan sighed but held her hands up. "Look, I am not going to hurt you okay. I don't hurt people like that."  
  
Ranma-chan took a slow step forward, but Grave, in her agitated mind, saw this as a threatening move. 'Fine, if I can't hit her with direct strikes, I'll try an area-effect.' "SCALDING MIST!!" Normally the spell 'Mist' was just an area-effect spell that caused cool water to fall down on an area, great for putting out small fires, and watering plants. However Grave combined it with a 'Heat' spell, making the mist hot, boiling hot, and causing a certain effect to take place.  
  
"EYYOWCH!! HOT, HOT, HOT!!" Came a male voice, Grave blinked when instead of a redheaded girl about her height, was a black haired youth, about three inches taller than her, muscular, handsome face and pale blue eyes.  
  
Grave stepped back in shock. "Who are you?"  
  
Ranma winced, that had been a rather 'hot' time. "I'm that girl you saw."  
  
Grave frowned. "So you're just like Genn huh? A shape-shifter." Grave threw another blast of magic at Ranma; tears were streaming down her face. "EVERYONE HATES ME!!" Grave then threw her arms wide and a bunch of electrical lightning flew from her palms out at Ranma.  
  
Ranma ducked the first three, rolled to the side of the next four, jumped back a bit to avoid the next two, but when he landed, he had to roll forward to avoid another shot, and since he was wet, it stung like a sonnavabitch. "YOWCH!! HEY! CALM DOWN ALREADY!" He then spoke in a calmer voice now that the lightning had stopped. "I don't hate you. I've said that already."  
  
Grave sniffled. "You... Stop lying it hurts! People say they like me... but then try to kill me! IT'S NOT FAIR!!!" Grave threw another bolt of lightning at Ranma's head.  
  
Ranma threw himself down to the floor as the magic flew harmlessly overhead. "Please stop. I wouldn't kill you. It goes against my being."  
  
"Ice Lance!" Grave threw her left arm back, shaped her hand like she was throwing a spear, but she hesitated slightly, needing to take a breath as she was starting to run low on energy. She readied herself and threw the lance at Ranma, who twisted and leaned to the right a bit to avoid it. The lance raced past him and he shivered a bit from the cool air as it passed him that was intense cold.  
  
Grave fell to her hands and knees and started sobbing hard, she had only stopped because she had run out of energy to cast spells. Ranma breathed a sigh of relief, as the girl seemed to calm down. He walked up to her slowly, so that she didn't seem as a threat. "Are you going to be okay?"  
  
"What are you waiting for? Just kill me."  
  
Ranma rubbed his forehead and sighed. "What do I have to do to prove that I'm not going to kill you"  
  
Grave remained silent, just waiting for him to drop the act and kill her and be done with it.  
  
Ranma shook his head. "Can you at least tell me your name? Or maybe why you think everyone is trying to kill you? Please? I promise I won't hurt you."  
  
Grave frowned and remained silent for some time. Finally she spoke; she figured that it couldn't hurt for her to know. "Grave Digger."  
  
Ranma sighed; he had finally gotten some useful information. "My name's Ranma Saotome. Grave Digger huh? Neat name." He then coughed into his hand a bit, not wanting to offend the girl, but he needed to know. "So how come you think everyone wants to kill you? I sure don't."  
  
Grave looked at the floor for some minutes, emotions, powerful emotions were coming to the surface and she eventually looked at Ranma with teary eyes. "Because everyone I know HAS tried to kill me."  
  
Ranma blinked. "Oh?" He then placed a hand on her shoulder lightly; while he was no good with emotions and giving comfort himself, he couldn't stand to see a girl in pain. "Tell me about it."  
  
Grave glared at him for several minutes and then decided to go with it. "Fine!" She sat leaned back so that she was sitting down instead of on her hands and knees. "You should know something, I was never born."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
"I'll explain. I'm not sure how long ago, for me it was only a few days, but two people, Britanny Elin Diggers and Gina Babette Diggers went to a tomb and picked up a bad-luck curse and a friend named Genn. When they got home, they decided to try and 'trick' the curse off of them. They succeeded, but in the process created two new people, Brianna, and myself with all their memories, experiences and a toned down set of abilities. At the time we were in one body. I then went to them, to find out if I could belong with them. I wanted to get rid of them at first, but I was willing to listen to what they had to say. The smart one, Gina, tried to talk me into not fighting. I was about to let Gina try and cure me, let me be friendly, but it was just a ploy, she tricked me into letting my guard down so that her sister, Britanny, who's got super speed, strength, agility, and senses, could take my weapon away from me."  
  
More tears came from Grave's eyes as she remembered that day; she wiped them away, not wanting to deal with them. "Then I took off, Britanny caught up to me and demanded to know why I acted like I was. I told her that I just wanted everything she had, including the guy she liked, because I liked him as well. She then tried to kill me by nearly crushing my throat. I was able to trip Gina up so that she knocked Britanny out, I then went and got some weapons, but Gina sent her bodyguards, the hurt-bots after me to attack. All she wanted to do was use them to stun me so that she could kill me personally. I then chased her for the rest of the day trying to kill her before she killed me. I got knocked out somehow, I can't quite remember, but then Gina's father, an Arch-Mage, tried to kill me." Grave's body was wracked with a sob. "I hid, I had to or I would've died. I hid in Brianna's Mind Shadow, where no one would know I was alive."  
  
Ranma was floored, he didn't understand completely what was going on, but he still felt compelled to try and help this girl. "Damn. But, but why do you want to kill them?"  
  
Grave glared at him with tears rolling down her face. "To make my own light! To be warmed by my own light. You can't understand, to know what it's like to live in the shadow of two others, two others that'll always be better than you at everything, to be nothing more than a mere clone, no matter how hard you try, you'll never amount to anything more than what they already are. I have to kill them. Because if I don't I can never become my own person, as long as they live."  
  
Grave shivered as a gust of cold air came through the cave again. Ranma frowned; he looked and saw that the mist hadn't hit his backpack, so he went over to it to get some clothing. Grave frowned as she saw him go to get something from his bag, 'So now he's going to kill me huh? I guess he's no different.' She tensed slightly as he pulled something out of the bag, but was surprised that it was clothing. "For you?"  
  
Ranma shook his head. "Nope, for you. You're freezing right now, and I think that these clothing will be better for you than those rags."  
  
He tossed them to Grave, and she smiled for the first time since he had gotten there. "Thank you." She said in all honesty. She grabbed the clothes, a pair of black cargo pants and a thick green shirt. She grabbed her rags and tossed them off of her, causing Ranma to blush badly when he saw her in the nude. He quickly turned away as Grave put on the pants and the shirt. Grave shivered, but this time it was from being warm. "Nice." She had to adjust her pants a bit so that her tail could get comfortable.  
  
Ranma smiled a bit and turned around, he had to admit that she looked more comfortable now that she wasn't directly exposed to freezing cold air. "Um, I gotta say I'm sorry. For going through that I mean, having everyone trick you and stuff. But, but how can you just be a shadow of someone? I mean, you care if your a shadow or not." Ranma then smirked. "My own shadow doesn't yell at me to move out of the way so it can get light." He then sobered. "I've never met this Gina, nor have I met Britanny before, so I don't know what they can do. But can either of them do what you can?"  
  
Grave looked at the ground. "No."  
  
"Well there ya go! Ya don't need to kill someone to be your own person. Heck, just stay away from them for now and travel with me."  
  
Grave looked up. "Huh?"  
  
Ranma grinned, rubbing the back of his head. "Well, I kinda don't know where I am right now, and I'd rather not be alone. Besides, I can't let a cute girl like you just be alone can I?"  
  
Grave smiled, her eyes teared up and she started sobbing, but it was not out of sadness, but pure happiness. She was receiving kindness that she didn't think existed out there.  
  
Ranma frowned and walked up to her, bending down on his knees and looked Grave in the face. "Is something wrong?" The pigtailed martial artist was then surprised when Grave lunged forward, hugging him and dropping the two of them onto his back as she cried into his shoulder. Ranma's arms wrapped around Grave's shoulders instinctively. "Grave? What's wrong?"  
  
"N-Nothing!" Grave sobbed into his shoulder. "Just hold me."  
  
Ranma nodded and let Grave cry into his shoulder, a part of him was surprised that he was able to give comfort like this; Genma had never been too big on giving comfort at all.  
  
After several minutes of letting her cry, Grave's sobs started to taper off to the occasional sniffle, as her breathing got more even Ranma blinked when he saw that she was sleeping. "Poor girl, must've been a rough past few days." He looked over and saw that his blankets were within arm's length, he reached over and grabbed the blanket and tossed it over them as moving too much would probably wake her up. "Yaaawwwwnnn. Come to think of it, I'm pretty tired myself." Ranma leaned his head back, he was thankful for the lose dirt which was easy to mold a bit to act as a pillow of sorts for him, as Ranma closed his eyes, his last thoughts were 'Just where am I?' and 'Maybe now I have a friend.' He then dozed off. 


	2. 1

Grave's New Life  
  
Part One  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Gold Digger, Fred Perry does. I don't own Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi does.  
  
This is an A.U. fic. It happens before the start of the Ranma 1/2 manga and during issue 47 of Volume 2 of the Black and White series of Gold Digger.  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
The world was quiet as the dawn broke with the sun peeking over the horizon. The light continued unobstructed as it passed over the land. The light filtering in one cave happened to pass over a certain young Lycanthropoid. Grave squinted her eyes a bit, then cracked them open a bit as she woke up, the first thing she noticed was the sleeping face of the boy she had met yesterday. The next thing she noticed was the fact that his arms were wrapped around her body as she lay on top of him. "He held me? All night?" Her eyes misted as she remembered his kindness to her. "Kindness I never, ever got before." She buried her face in his chest as she let out tears of happiness.  
  
She blinked when she felt his arms tighten a bit around her. "So why are you crying Grave?" Grave looked up, with tears silently falling down her face to Ranma's blue orbs. "A cute girl like you shouldn't cry like that."  
  
Grave smiled and rested her head on Ranma's chest, she spoke clearly enough for Ranma to hear it. "I-I'm just so happy."  
  
Ranma blinked. "Girls cry when they're happy?"  
  
Grave nodded. "Yes."  
  
"Okay." Ranma just continued to hold her to him, the feelings of her body pressed against his was causing feelings he hadn't experienced before to come forth. Grave smiled on top of him, just enjoying being held as it made her feel safe and warm, she wiggled and snuggled her body closer to Ranma's.  
  
After several minutes Ranma asked a question that was on his mind. "Say Grave?"  
  
"Hmmm?"  
  
"Just where are we? I really don't know where I am."  
  
Grave frowned a bit, and then muttered. "We're on Jade. A whole different world from Earth, that is if you are from Earth."  
  
Ranma nodded and rubbed his hands up and down her back. "Yeah, I'm from Earth." He then frowned, "You really need some clothes don't you?"  
  
Grave nodded against his chest. "Yes. But if I go to any town, people will just tell those others that are after me and then they'll find me and then. ." Grave trailed off as she started sobbing out that if the people she were running from found her, they'd kill her in an instant.  
  
Ranma frowned and hugged her to him a bit tighter. "Don't worry about it Grave. I won't let anything happen to you."  
  
Grave lifted her head up to look Ranma in the eye. Greenish eyes met blue. "You mean it?"  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, I promise you. They'd have to kill me first, I don't let my friends get hurt like that."  
  
Ranma was surprised as Grave kissed him on the lips. His eyes bulged a bit for a while, but since Grave didn't stop, he gave into the kiss and was soon kissing back. Ranma closed his eyes and placed a hand on the back of Grave's head. This continued for a bit, when Grave's eyes opened a bit, she pulled back and looked at him. "Thanks." She smiled and sat up, stretching a bit, with both arms up as she leaned back just a little to get the kinks out of her body.  
  
Ranma blushed as he watched her stretch; he still remembered that free show he received last night. "Eh heh. But, why thank me?"  
  
Grave looked at him curious. "You mean you don't know?"  
  
Ranma shook his head, trying to think of what he did to get her to say thank you. "All I did was give ya some of my clothes last night."  
  
Grave shook her head. "You mean you really don't know?"  
  
"Yeah, I mean, I did what anyone would do."  
  
Grave shook her head. "You did more than that, you were kind to me. You're the first person to ever be kind to me." Grave sighed; she didn't want to start crying again. "But, you're right, I do need new clothes. But, you don't have any money."  
  
Ranma shrugged and grinned. "Yeah, so? I always find a way of getting what I need."  
  
Grave nodded, she trusted him. She got off of him, Ranma grinned and got up as well. "Well Grave, how about we just travel for a bit then?"  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Ranma nodded and went to go and get his stuff packed up. "I don't have a lot of friends in my life, plus I don't know where I'm at. So how about it? You don't want those people coming after you, and I don't want to be alone right now. Plus I said I'd get you some clothes, so, I will."  
  
Grave smiled as he put the last of his stuff away. "Thanks."  
  
Ranma smiled. "No problem."  
  
Soon Ranma was packed and the two were heading for the nearest town, along the way Ranma decided to talk a bit to Grave, telling him a bit about him. "So then we left Ucchan there. I still don't know why he was running after us, or why we got his cart as a gift."  
  
Grave nodded. "Wow, this Ukyou boy sounds like a neat friend."  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, and, uh oh." Ranma stopped, narrowed his eyes and looked around, while he was doing that, he dropped his backpack.  
  
"Ranma?"  
  
"There's a bunch of people all around us."  
  
Grave blinked when suddenly ten big, muscular men surrounded them. All of them were scarred up and rather filthy, Grave nearly threw up from the smell.  
  
All of them had dirty, filthy pants on, slimy from not washing them. The pants were gray and matted with mud. None of them were wearing shirts, so their scarred bodies were on display.  
  
Grave blanched as she took this all in. "Yuck!"  
  
The leader, Stan, looked amused; he was about six feet tall and had slimy black hair. "A Werecheetah? Heh heh. Boys we just found ourselves a valuable piece here."  
  
A bald man, who was about five foot eight, chuckled. "Boss, not only would she be valuable, but she's got a great ass too."  
  
Grave shuddered at that, feeling repulsed at that. Normally compliments like that would feel nice, but considering just WHAT, these thugs didn't deserve to be called people, the words were coming from, it made her sick.  
  
Ranma narrowed his eyes at the group, he had seen people like this before in the bigger cities, bullies and cowards, they were only strong in a group, plus they liked to pick on people weaker than they were.  
  
Stan chuckled a bit and spoke to Ranma. "Look kid, just give us the Werecheetah and we'll let you go free." He then smirked. "First we'll have some 'fun' with her, and then sell her on the Black Market."  
  
Ranma frowned and whispered to Grave. "Can ya do that hot mist thing again?"  
  
"Scalding Mist? Yeah why?" Grave whispered back to him.  
  
"Can you make it super hot?"  
  
Grave grinned. "How hot do you need it?"  
  
"Good, make it as hot as you can and fry the jerks that are behind us." Ranma whispered as the bandits came closer. "I'll take out the three in front, that leaves four others, ready? NOW!!"  
  
"Scalding Mist!" Grave turned and spread her arms out, causing the bandits behind her, three of them to get hit with water at 100 degree centigrade, or boiling point. Grave made it extra hot, just so she made the jerk pay who commented on her butt. The three screamed in agony as they were burned.  
  
Rushing forward faster than what the bandits thought possible, Ranma smacked Stan in the chin, sending him flying into a tree. Ranma then side- kicked the other guy in the throat and into a tree.  
  
The remaining thieves were surprised, but they quickly got over it, one of which had a bolo, a rope with weighted ends, specifically metal. He threw it and it wrapped around Grave's legs and tail, wrapping them together and causing her to fall to the ground. "What the?" Grave fell to the ground, she tried to use her magic to levitate, but something was stopping her magic from working correctly.  
  
Two of the bandits converged on Grave, while the other two went to help their comrade, who was just knocked out from a rather painful knee to the gut and uppercut combo. Ranma turned around to prepare to fight them, but then he made the mistake of turning his attention elsewhere and saw Grave on the ground as two bandits approached her. He only turned away for a second, but that was all the other two needed as they attacked him. Ranma turned to them, since he was caught a bit off guard, he was a little off- balance. He Judo threw one guy away from him, but the other one hit him in his back, Ranma grimaced but did a spin kick to the guy's ribs. The guy that Ranma threw got back up and threw a heavy rock that was on the ground, which hit the boy to the ground. They wasted no time and then jumped on top of him, each one grabbing a limb on either side of his body.  
  
They lifted him up and a tubby guy, with slimy brown hair, the one who threw the rock looked at Ranma. "Heh, boy, you shoulda let us just have her, we woulda let ya go and not have ta see this, but I guess ya have ta be stupid huh?"  
  
The other two bandits were on top of Grave, one of which, a six foot five guy with red hair that looked like a bird's nest, held Grave by her arms painfully.  
  
The other guy was a five foot five sweaty, smelly, pudgy, but muscled and scarred individual.  
  
Grave struggled. "Let me GO!"  
  
The guy in front of her chuckled. "Oh? You think we'll let a little girl like you go?" He looked up and down her body. "You don't look like much, must be a fourteen year old or something." He smirked. "But a rather well developed fourteen year old." He reached up and groped one of Grave's breasts through her shirt.  
  
Grave closed her eyes and winced, the man was being rather mean and forceful about it. "Ugh."  
  
Ranma was watching this growling, he made a promise to protect Grave, and right now he wasn't doing a very good job, 'If only there was someway to get free, if only there was something that could help.' Ranma closed his eyes and accessed his inner being, trying to find something, anything that could help out right now. He found a wall, a dark wall and a wave of fear coming from it. Ranma mentally shuddered, 'The Neko-ken?' What Genma didn't know, was that Ranma, several months before they reached Jusenkyo, was trying to consciously tap into the power of that technique. But no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't do it without passing out. Ranma figured he just didn't have a reason to try and learn the technique fully, and that's why he didn't master it. But now he did, he had one reason, that was to protect his friend, even if he could only tap into the power just a little bit, it would be better than nothing at all.  
  
Unbeknownst to Ranma, while his eyes were closed the two bandits that were holding him blinked when he started glowing a pale golden color. "Um, is supposed to glow like that Rich?" The one who had spoken to Ranma earlier asked.  
  
"Don't know. Unless he's a mage of some type."  
  
The first guy gulped. "A m-mage?"  
  
They didn't get to speculate on it any longer as the boy started glowing a brilliant golden sheen, he snapped his arms and legs out and pulled them back close to his body, he ducked his head as the two bandits clonked their heads together. This caused them to let go of Ranma, who turned to them and they gulped when they saw the feral, slightly insane look in his eyes.  
  
Meanwhile the other two weren't watching this, so they didn't know what was about to happen, the one in front of Grave spoke. "Hmm, you know, maybe we should keep her as our personal whore?"  
  
Grave shivered and glared defiantly at him. "Do that and I'll kill you."  
  
The one holding her chuckled. "She's a feisty one, you know what they say about women with fiery tempers, Joe."  
  
Joe chuckled. "Yeah, they're wildcats in the sack." He then smirked. "And since she's a Werecheetah, she'll be an even wilder cat in the sack."  
  
The guy holding her looked a bit doubtful. "I'm not so sure. I mean, she only has one eye stripe, not to mention human ears."  
  
"Heh, true."  
  
Suddenly, they heard a noise, Joe, turned to look, only to receive a tree limb to the face, thrown at high speeds, knocking him out. The guy who was holding Grave shuddered, let the Lycanthropoid go as she fell to the ground, as he took in the sight of a golden glowing human, but this human had a feral look in his eyes, like he wasn't completely there. Behind the boy were the other two bandits, beaten and bloody.  
  
Bob, the one that had been holding Grave, took a couple steps back and turned to run, only to find the boy in front of him. "I don't think so." The boy growled out as he jumped toward Bob at higher speeds than before, and kicked him in the gut, causing Bob to double over in pain, then Ranma pulled his hand back, put all his strength into it and delivered an open- palm strike to Bob's cheek and jaw, shattering the bone and causing Bob to fall down and into unconsciousness.  
  
Ranma fell to his knees, panting, as the golden glow left him; he looked up and around and was confused when he saw all the bandits out cold. Shrugging he made his way to Grave. "You okay?"  
  
Grave nodded. "Yeah, but what was with the golden glow?"  
  
Ranma scratched his head. "Golden glow?"  
  
"Never mind, can you help me get this off?"  
  
"Sure." Ranma went to his pack and pulled out a knife. He then cut the rope that had Grave's legs wrapped up. "There you go." Ranma then went back to his pack, put the knife away and hefted it up. "So what's this about a golden glow?"  
  
Grave blinked as she stood up. "You mean you don't know? Just a second." Grave turned and looked at Joe, "Ice Lance!" Grave threw her hand back, gripped it like she was holding something and then threw a spear of pure ice at Joe, who turned into a human Popsicle. "That was for groping me, you jerk!" Grave turned back to Ranma. "So, you don't know huh?"  
  
Ranma shook his head as he looted through the bandits, taking their money. "Nope, no idea." It seemed that only Stan, the leader of the gang, had any money. Ranma didn't know much about currency, but he found about 100 silver pieces, 100 gold pieces, and 50 pieces of some type of metal that he had never seen before. Ranma didn't know it, but he had 50 pieces of platinum.  
  
Ranma looked at Grave as he held up the bag of money. "So why don't you tell me about it while we head to the nearest town. I think I got enough money to get you some clothing."  
  
Grave smiled and nodded. "Sure." And so, the two took off.  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
A.N. Yes Ranma has some, I repeat some control of the Neko-ken, but not conscious. It's a semi-conscious thing with him, at least right now. Ranma can only gain the Neko-ken's abilities when he absolutely needs them and only while he's fighting, due to battle stress. In a way, it's like the Light Hawk Wings that Tenchi uses, he can only use them when absolutely necessary.  
  
The feral look, in case you're wondering, in his eyes is due to the cat spirit of the Neko-ken semi-merging with Ranma for short periods of time. All Ranma gains now are slightly enhanced strength and reflexes, later, who knows? 


	3. 2

Grave's New Life  
  
Part Two  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own Gold Digger, Fred Perry does. I don't own Ranma 1/2, Rumiko Takahashi does.  
  
This is an A.U. fic. It happens before the start of the Ranma 1/2 manga and during issue 47 of Volume 2 of the Black and White series of Gold Digger.  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
Ranma frowned as he and Grave walked in an eastern direction. Grave sighed. "Ranma, it's not so bad. No one's perfect, especially when fighting."  
  
Ranma nodded. "I know. I know, but yet, I still can't help but get angry that I was nearly taken out by a stupid rock." He sighed. "And with what you said, it was like I wasn't even there when I fought them."  
  
Grave looked concerned. "Ranma, just what was that?"  
  
Ranma shook his head. "Trust me Grave, you don't want to know."  
  
"It can't be that bad, can it?"  
  
Ranma sighed. "It's, it's not something I like talking about, you know. But if you must know, it was a training accident that I've been working on to correct for the past few months."  
  
Grave sighed and walked in front of him. "Now listen here! I told you just how I came to be, the least you can do is tell me about what that was."  
  
Ranma stopped and looked at her eyes, he could tell she was serious about knowing. "You really want to know?" Grave nodded and Ranma sighed. "Well, what that was, was something known as Neko-Ken, or Cat-Fist."  
  
Grave blinked. "Sounds interesting."  
  
Ranma smirked a bit sadly as he walked past her, Grave walked right beside him. "Kinda. The training, when complete, is supposed to make a person unbeatable by normal fighters. Heck, the Neko-Ken is supposed to be invincible. But the training is bad."  
  
Grave blinked. "How bad?"  
  
Ranma sighed. "Have you ever been savagely attacked by a wild animal? One that wouldn't stop, no matter what?"  
  
Grave shivered, the memories she had of Jetta nearly killing her, even though it was Britanny that the Werewolf had nearly killed, was bad enough. "Kinda."  
  
Ranma nodded. "Well, imagine being six years old and getting attacked like that over and over and over." Ranma started shaking. "The pain, oh gods the pain, you just can't imagine what it's like." He hugged himself as he shivered and shook. "Gods! It's like nearly dieing several times over. I just . . .don't like talking about it, that's all."  
  
Grave sighed. "I guess not."  
  
After a bit, Ranma frowned and stopped shaking. "I still can't believe I got my butt handed to me."  
  
"No you didn't! If you hadn't been there, they might've done something horrible to me!"  
  
Ranma turned to look at Grave as she shivered. "No, I said I'd protect you, and I will. What I'm mad about was the fact that I didn't do a good job."  
  
Ranma growled a bit as he thought about what those bandits nearly did to him and Grave, he turned and punched a boulder that was sitting by the road, shattering in with ease. "I was so stupid and careless!"  
  
Grave blinked, she knew that Britanny and Brianna could do that, as Britanny had magically enhanced strength, and Brianna had roughly half of that, but she had never met a human who could do that before, well, one without having a magical or a technological enhancement.  
  
"How'd you do that? I know Werecreatures can, but I've never seen a normal human do that before."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Just martial arts, last I checked I could shatter a one ton boulder." [1]  
  
Grave looked at him. "Then why didn't you beat those thugs with ease?"  
  
Ranma shook his head and sighed. "It's not that simple, I don't go around hitting people with my full strength, I could easily hurt them, but when we were fighting those thugs, they hit me with a rock that had to weigh at least one hundred pounds, not to mention that they threw it and it hit me right below the neck. Then when they picked me up, they held my limbs in a way that I couldn't use my strength."  
  
"Maybe you shouldn't hold back against people. There are people who can take hits like one ton of force and shrug it off."  
  
Ranma looked at her. "You're kidding!"  
  
Grave shook her head. "Nope! Not long before I was 'born' Britanny and Gina got into a fight with a couple of Werewolves by the name of Jetta and Thabian. Britanny, at the time, could lift roughly five tons easily. She could throw punches at over three hundred miles an hour and yet Jetta took all that and shrugged it off for the most part and hit Britanny a lot harder than she was hitting Jetta."  
  
Grave then sighed. "As for Gina, well, she shot Thabian with enough force that he should've been nothing but a liquid, instead all he had was a bruise on his arm-pit.  
  
Ranma goggled. "They were that tough?!" Grave just nodded. Ranma nodded and walked forward, just thinking about that. Grave shrugged and followed him as they walked, she didn't have anywhere to go, neither did Ranma, so they really had all the time in the world, at least until Brianna and whoever was with her caught up to Grave.  
  
********  
  
In an office building in Seer's Hamlet, there were seven people mulling about. The first was an eight-foot tall, powerfully built man with orangish hair, with brown fur covering his body. He was wearing a gray traveling robe, he had orangish eyes, and his name was Onoli, a Werelion and the leader of a peacekeeping group known as the Northern Edge Guard.  
  
Sitting next to him was a seven-foot-one Werepanther by the name of Thropan. He was a Werecat with dark purple, almost black, fur on him; he was wearing an orange Gi tied at the waist with brown boots. Technically he was bald, but since he was in hybrid form, he had a layer of dark purple fur on his head. He had brown eyes surrounded by green.  
  
Standing in a corner was a seven-foot-two Weretiger by the name of Tirga, he had light-red fur with black stripes on his body, although his face was covered in white fur with two black stripes on both cheeks his eyes were the color of blue. The Weretiger had short hair, but long bangs, he was wearing a sleeveless black leather body suit, black leather boots, and three black leather belts, one atop the other, staring at the wait line, and going up to cover his stomach, just ending underneath the chest. His name was Tirga, a rather well known playboy to the women of Jade and the Retreat.  
  
Sitting across from Onoli was a Werecat that was seven feet and half an inch tall, he was a Jagwere, or Werejaguar, his name was Gar and he had long, tan hair with rings in it, his eyes were brown. The fur on his back, tail, arms, save the forearms, and on the sides of his legs was brown with black rings. The inside of his legs was white, and face, save for a black stripe on each cheek. His forearms and hands were covered in white fur. He was wearing a dark green cloth shirt with dark brown sleeveless leather vest over it, dark brown leather pants, he has bandages over his hands and feet for covering, and a dark green bandana to cover his forehead.  
  
Sitting on a small couch were three females. The first one is a Jagwere, who has long tan hair with rings in it that went down to her shoulders; she also has rather long bangs as well. But unlike the others who were tall, she was rather short and petite. Thanks to a birth defect this Jagwere, who was named Sheila, Gar's younger sister, was only five-foot-five, she was wearing a light blue cloth one piece, with a blue cotton shirt over it, and a pair of blue lyre leggings. The leggings went all the way up to above her knees, however, she had cut holes in the knee area, the toes, the heels, and the back of the leg where it bends, to allow for more flexibility and traction while fighting.  
  
Sitting next to her is a girl with bronze skin and silverish hair that went to her shoulders. She had rather long and pointed ears as well as horns that pointed backwards. She had dark purplish eyes; she was wearing a light blue one-piece dress and brown shoes, all of which was suitable for traveling. Her name was Genn, a Raksasha or shape-shifter who had recently lost some of her abilities to change, she stood about five-foot-eleven, and she was a buxom looking girl.  
  
The final girl had blonde hair that went to the middle of her back, pale green eyes. She had long bangs that framed her face and reached down to her rather generous chest. She was about six-foot-ten. She was wearing a green tank top and black shorts with white high-top sneakers. Her name was Brianna Diggers.  
  
Thropan rubbed his forehead, normally he was a rather calm and collected individual, but the mess involving Grave Digger, Brianna being thrown in jail and then released to stop a Demi-Golem and bring a Werecheetah named Raphiel to life, plus the death of their mentor Gaja had his patience pushed to the limits. [2] Fortunately he took a few deep breaths before continuing. "Okay, so because of a blunder that was made, there's a powerful and potentially unstable magical Werecat running around?"  
  
Everyone nodded and some winced, Brianna spoke up. "Actually, she's half- Werecat, my other half."  
  
Tirga blinked. "You're Dark Side?" [3] Brianna nodded.  
  
Onoli nodded. "Still . . .How dangerous is she?"  
  
Sheila shrugged her shoulders. "She. . Just seemed to want to live."  
  
Genn shuddered. "Yeah. But that's the scary thing, what if she feels threatened and cornered?"  
  
Sheila glanced at her. "... A fight is going to break out."  
  
Brianna shivered. "If she acts anything like the time when we were merged, then I fear for whoever she attacks."  
  
Onoli frowned. "Great, so I guess we'll have to go after her then."  
  
Gar had been silent up until this point and looked at Onoli. "I suppose so."  
  
Thropan raised an eyebrow. "You don't seem so convinced Gar, what's up with that?"  
  
Gar just shook his head. "Just a thought, don't worry about it."  
  
Sheila hummed. "Maybe, since, she wants to live, she'll be afraid of us coming after her. And if she sees us, and I mean any of us she'll freak."  
  
Tirga smirked. "Well, we'll have to put that bad kitty down, won't we?"  
  
Brianna looked at him. "She'll rip you apart if you try and attack her."  
  
Tirga chuckled. "Who said anything about attacking her? Once she rides the "Tiger Tumble", she'll be calmed down enough to put away?"  
  
Sheila growled and got up and walked up to Tirga. "Oh Tirga?" She said sweetly.  
  
"Uh, yes?"  
  
"KAPOWIE!" Sheila uppercutted Tirga in the chin, which sent him flying into the distance with a PING.  
  
Sheila turned to the others, who all had sweat drops on their foreheads. "Remember the only people in this room she doesn't know are Thropan and Onoli."  
  
Thropan nodded. "So it's up to me and Onoli?"  
  
Sheila nodded. "Yeah."  
  
Genn frowned. "What scares me, is that every moment she spends out there is another moment in which she can be hurting someone."  
  
Onoli frowned. "I just hope innocent civilians aren't getting hurt."  
  
Sheila scratched her head. "I don't think so."  
  
Everyone there looked at her, Brianna spoke up. "Just what do you mean?"  
  
"Well, you see, she never attacked someone who didn't attack her, or she didn't feel was a threat."  
  
Everyone blinked and Genn spoke up. "You've got to be kidding, she attacked everyone at the clinic."  
  
Sheila shook her head. "No, listen, she never attacked G'Nolga, that guy, now a girl, that was with her, Tirga, or innocent civilians."  
  
Gar just frowned and leaned back in his seat. Brianna looked at him. "What's wrong?"  
  
Gar shook his head. "Nothing much." Privately he thought, 'How can I tell you that your mother, my sensei in the Martial Arts, blames me for what happened to you.' [4]  
  
Genn looked at Onoli. "So, what are you're plans right now?"  
  
Onoli shook his head. "I've contacted the Main Guard about the situation with Grave Digger, and they've contacted the Eastern, Western, and Southern Edge Guards as well. Everyone's keeping an eye out for a rather short Werecheetah."  
  
Brianna slammed her hands onto a table that was in the room. "So that's it?! We just tell everyone to keep an eye out for her and hope they find her before she finds a way onto Earth?"  
  
Genn looked at her friend and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't worry Brianna. There's not much more that can be done. We don't know where she went, all we do know is that she went south of here and that's it."  
  
Sheila blinked. "Say, isn't the Dim Crag mountains south of here?"  
  
Thropan nodded. "Yeah, they are. So are the Main Guard, the Observatory and a whole lot of other places."  
  
Sheila shrugged. "I just think that Dim Crag would be the best place for her to go."  
  
Onoli nodded. "True, there aren't a whole lot of Trolls in that area, but there are a lot of bandits however."  
  
Gar shrugged. "Depending on where you go. Leep's School is also in that area."  
  
Everyone blinked and Thropan nodded. "That's right, Weaponsmaster Leep."  
  
Brianna and Genn blinked. "Huh? Who?" They asked at the same time.  
  
Sheila shrugged. "Weaponsmaster Leep, one of the best fighters on Jade, not to mention the best Martial Arts instructor on Jade. He taught your mother Brianna."  
  
Brianna blinked. "Oh, okay."  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
[1] I figure that Ranma can shatter one-ton boulders at full strength right now. I can hit with the force of 350 pounds. And I'm an untrained person, I figure that Ranma can easily hit one ton.  
  
[2] This is a reference to issues 48 and 50 of the Black and White Series. In them Gaja died because of a blow caused by G'Nolga. Who's Gaja you ask? He's a three hundred year old Jagwere Arch Mage; he's the one who split Grave and Brianna apart. He was the leader of the Northern Edge Guard as well as their mentor up to his death, where he passed on the leadership to Onoli.  
  
As for the Demi Golem, well, that's a bit complicated, but here goes, shortly after Gaja's death and the Edge Guard were still mourning, Array, the Sheriff of Seer's Hamlet.  
  
Who's Array? Well, she's a Super Villainess from Earth, who's special powers allow her to make as many bodies as she wants to, each with their own personality.  
  
That's getting a little off track here, so anyway, Brianna was arrested and put on trial for bringing illegal technology to Jade. Array had her brought to trial where she was sentenced to 300 years imprisonment. Before she was sentenced, Brianna told them just why she was there. To resurrect a young Werecheetah by the name of Raphiel. Like her, he was born in a day, at an adult age, with no memories of his own up until that point. Array took pity on Brianna and busted her out of Jail.  
  
Array had recreated Raphiel's body on the condition that Brianna and Raphiel stop Tirant, a Super Villain from Earth with the power to conduct lightning, from using a giant Demi Golem, who looked like Spelvis. (The Gold Digger spoof of Elvis.)  
  
As for Tirant, he kind of looks a lot like Lex Luthor from Superman.  
  
Brianna and Raphiel caused the Demi Golem to fall into a pit-trap, which stopped it.  
  
[3] Reference to Star Wars.  
  
[4] As for that, well, Julia arrived on Jade to judge the Tournament of Arms, and she happened to come upon Gar, Sheila, and Onoli when Brianna was being sprung out of jail by one of Array's multiple bodies, a Stone Giant who happens to be a criminal. Julia truly didn't blame Gar for what happened, but she was disappointed in him for letting this happen to her youngest daughter. 


	4. 3

Grave's New Life  
  
Part Three  
  
I don't own Ranma 1/2. I don't own Gold Digger. If I owned either of them, I'd be rich.  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
Grave sighed a bit. "Ranma, do you really have to train all the time?"  
  
Ranma grinned a little bit. "Yeah, sorry, but I kinda wanna keep up with my training a bit. 'Specially if there is guys that fight better than those bandits."  
  
"It is kind of want to."  
  
"Huh?"  
  
Grave giggled a bit. "Your speech is terrible. You don't speak correctly."  
  
Ranma groaned. "Gimme a break, I ain't never spent much time in school."  
  
Grave giggled again. "I understand. But you should've said, 'I've never spent much time in school.' Anyway, you should put down that boulder, you look ridiculous."  
  
Ranma looked at her. "What's wrong with the boulder?"  
  
Grave rolled her eyes. "You're carrying a five hundred pound boulder on your back, and you look funny." Grave scratched her head. "What's it for anyway?"  
  
Ranma grinned. "Weight and strength training."  
  
Grave rolled her eyes. "There has got to be a better way to weight train, not to mention that there has to be a way for it to look good."  
  
"So, uh, what do ya think would be better?" Ranma wasn't totally stupid; he knew that his knowledge outside of the Martial Arts was limited.  
  
Grave shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe weighted clothing?"  
  
Ranma blinked. "Weighted clothing?"  
  
"It was something Gina read once in a comic book, these fighters used heavy clothing to get stronger and faster all the time."  
  
Ranma nodded, he could actually see the benefits from that type of training. "I see, you're always working out even when you're not doing much."  
  
Grave nodded. "Yeah."  
  
The two continued to walk in silence for several minutes, each one lost in their own thoughts. Grave finally broke the silence when her stomach rumbled. "Ah, I guess I'm a little bit hungry."  
  
Ranma chuckled a bit as his stomach growled, demanding food. "Same here. So, how about we find a lake or something and catch some fish?"  
  
Grave licked her lips. "Sure, maybe there'll be tuna?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Maybe."  
  
"Yay!" The two continued to head east, looking for a pond, lake or river, so that they could catch some fish, preferably tuna fish.  
  
What Ranma and Grave didn't realize was that they were heading right for a city.  
  
********  
  
In the port city of Temul, people were setting up for the annual Harvest Festival, one it had each year. This year's festival happened to be special as it took place shortly before the Tournament of Arms [1] did.  
  
Sitting by a fountain was a short, around four-foot-three, light-brown furred fox-like creature with two tails. He was an Air Kitsune by the name of Yoten. Yoten was young, by Kitsune standards, as he was only 74 years old. He used his two tails to fly. He wore a light orange shirt with black pants, he always kept his eyes closed, though he could easily see what was going on around him at all times. His weapon of choice was the Wind Chakram, a Frisbee with a hole in the middle of it, while the outer edge was sharp. [2] With his Chakram, he could create typhoons like an adult Air Kitsune. Yoten was gifted with the power to create projectile force bubbles of kinetic energy. He was a member of the Eastern Edge Guard and did what he could to protect the citizens of Jade.  
  
Yoten shook his head as he went over the latest report given to him. "A small Werecheetah with human facial features huh? Heh, there ain't no Werecheetah's left, that's for sure, must be a joke, oh well, I'll keep my eye open, never know what will show up."  
  
He turned and walked away from the fountain, looking for something to eat.  
  
Meanwhile Grave and Ranma had arrived at the edge of Temul, however, they ran into a bit of a snag. "Um, Grave, do you know what that sign says?"  
  
Grave shook her head. "Nope. I can't read that. Though if you give me a few days I could probably learn to read those squiggly lines."  
  
Ranma nodded. "I guess, though it's probably like Kanji."  
  
"Oh? You mean the Japanese writing system?"  
  
"I'm not sure what you said totally, but Kanji are just symbols which represent ideas and what-not."  
  
Grave giggled. "You weren't kidding about having so little schooling Ranma."  
  
"Ain't like I really need it to teach Martial Arts."  
  
Grave winced. "Yes, yes you do." She sighed as Ranma looked at her questioningly. "Never mind that. I'll teach you about it later, can you please drop that rock now?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Sure." Ranma just tossed the rock off of his shoulders; it landed a bit behind him. "So how's about we get something ta eat?"  
  
"After we get some clothes, I want to get some underwear, and you need better clothing yourself."  
  
"What's wrong with what I got? Clothes are just clothes. They keep you warm and dressed is all."  
  
Grave giggled. "I guess you've got a point, but still, you should get clothes that look good on you."  
  
"Why? I look good in anything."  
  
"Yeah, but that's not the point, the point is that you should get clothes that are better than that Gi you're wearing. It is kind of dirty."  
  
Ranma looked at his Gi. "I guess you have a point, it is a light gray instead of white."  
  
"I'm guessing that's from the dirt on it."  
  
"Ah, yeah. I got some Chinese clothes, but I am not wearing them for traveling and training all the time. Since they're silk, I'm not going to wear them while on the road, they rip easily and they were a gift from a store clerk."  
  
"Oh?"  
  
"Yeah, he gave them to me because he saw that I didn't have much of anything else to wear." Ranma shrugged. "So, wanna go in?"  
  
"Sure." The two proceeded to walk into Temul.  
  
After a bit, Ranma noticed something. "Say, Grave, why is everyone looking at us? Not that I really care what most people think, but still, it gets on my nerves." There were few people out, most were doing something at the time, but they when they saw Grave they stopped to look for a bit before shrugging and going back to what they were doing.  
  
Grave looked around and moved a bit closer to Ranma. "I think they're looking at me."  
  
Ranma frowned. "Why?"  
  
"Werecheetahs aren't common, in fact they're all dead save for Britanny."  
  
Ranma nodded. "I see, but what does that have to do with you?"  
  
"I look like a Werecheetah. Just short with human facial features."  
  
"So you're a Werecheetah? Um, what's a Cheetah?"  
  
Grave had to resist the urge to face fault. "A Cheetah is a cat. A very large cat."  
  
Ranma shuddered a bit. "So you're a type of Werec-c-c-cat then huh?"  
  
Grave nodded. "Yeah, but I'm only half Werecat."  
  
Ranma nodded. "I guess. I wouldn't know."  
  
Grave looked around as she tried to ignore what the people around her were doing. She blinked when she saw a shop with clothes on display; most of them were exotic looking, to her at least. "Say Ranma?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
Grave pointed to the store. "How about we shop there?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "Sure, why not?" As they walked in, Ranma asked, "Say Grave?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"I thought you didn't want to go to town, why the change?"  
  
Grave turned away from Ranma. "It's nothing."  
  
Ranma blinked. "I see." He wasn't going to pry.  
  
Inside the store was an old man named Bill. He was a human getting on with age and around seventy or so, wearing a plaid shirt with black pants, heavy- duty shoes adorned his feet. He had a full head of hair, but it was a white-grayish color. He was someone who could've retired, but didn't because he loved doing what he did for a living. His store, called Bill's Clothes Shop, sold practically everything and anything that dealt with clothes, from children's clothing to adult clothing, wedding apparel, Mage Suits, etc.  
  
"Sure is slow today, oh well, with everyone preparing for the fair, I don't think that I'll be getting too much business today." Suddenly the door opened and two youths walked in, the first one, a human male was nothing special, but the second one. "Hmm, a type of Werecat that I've never seen before."  
  
Bill shook his head, it didn't matter to him whom he served, he just did his job and didn't ask too many questions, as long as he got paid. He walked over to the youths. "May I help you?"  
  
Grave jumped a bit, but Ranma turned around calmly, he had seen the man when they first entered, plus he felt the guy walk up behind him. Ranma looked at Grave. "Why don't you ask him?"  
  
"Sure, um, sir?"  
  
"Bill, call me Bill, so what is that you two youngsters want?"  
  
"Well, we need some clothing, and I was wondering if you had any changing rooms?"  
  
"Changing rooms? Ah, yes, they're in the back there." Bill pointed to the back of the store. "Just down those isles and there will be a couple of rooms for changing."  
  
"Thank you."  
  
Bill nodded. "Think nothing of it."  
  
Bill turned and walked back to the counter, he sat down on a chair that was behind it and relaxed as he watched the two go around getting what they needed. Bill smiled as the two grabbed clothing and asked each other what they thought, well, the girl was asking the boy what he thought was good- looking, while the boy seemed to go for practicality. He blinked as he saw the girl levitate some clothes with a gesture.  
  
"Excuse me?"  
  
Grave and Ranma looked over to Bill. "Yes?"  
  
"May I ask a question here?"  
  
Ranma shrugged. "I don't see why not?"  
  
"Well, I was wondering if the young lady is a magic user?"  
  
Ranma looked at Grave, he had never asked that question, he didn't know what she was using to fight with before. Grave nodded. "Yes I am. Why do you ask?"  
  
"You see, I happen to have an assortment of Mage Suits in many different colors. Even some with tail holes in them. They're in the back by the changing rooms."  
  
Ranma scratched his forehead. "Um, what good are Mage Suits?"  
  
"Well, I'm not really sure myself as I don't wear them, but I hear they regulate body temperatures and are fairly tough to destroy. Even if damaged, an Aura Mage, such as the young lass here, can easily repair the damages to the suit."  
  
Grave nodded. "Thanks Bill," and she ran to the back of the store.  
  
Ranma shrugged and walked to the back as well, on the way to the back, he spotted some clothing that looked very interesting. Black and brown boots that went halfway up the shins, black fighting pants with a dark red belt that had a Phoenix in the middle of the buckle, two black arm bracers and a white shirt. But all that wasn't too interesting, it was the coat that was with it. A short-sleeved red coat that was long, Ranma thought that the coat would reach almost to his ankles, however, there was a design on the back that was really interesting, a golden Eastern Imperial Dragon, with the whiskers on its nose, the Dragon was coiled in circles, two green eyes looked to be staring out at him.  
  
"Ah, you like that huh?"  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yeah, it looks neat."  
  
Bill smiled. "Yes it is rather neat, my son, who was a guardsman at Seer's Hamlet, had his wife make that for him when he went traveling and adventuring."  
  
"What happened?"  
  
Bill sighed. "He was guarding Seer's Hamlet, when six years ago he spotted a bandit gang causing trouble. He sought to take care of it, but the bandits ended up injuring him badly, he nearly died from that. He got better however and is now retired from adventuring; he's one of the head guardsmen at Seer's Hamlet. So, he gave the coat to me so that I could sell it to whomever wanted to buy it, but no one's wanted it."  
  
"How much?"  
  
"Ten silver pieces."  
  
"Is that a lot?"  
  
"Not especially."  
  
"I'll take it."  
  
Bill looked at Ranma; the kid didn't seem to have a lot of money, but then again, who was he to judge? "Alright. Just get your girlfriend and all her clothing up to the counter and I'll get your totals."  
  
Ranma nodded. "Sure." He totally missed the meaning of the girlfriend comment, sure, Grave was a girl, and she was a friend, but that was it, to him at least.  
  
He walked back to the changing rooms and knocked on the doors. "Grave?"  
  
"Yeah? Hold on." She walked out of the room and Ranma's breath caught in his throat, Grave was wearing a purple Mage Suit, thought the feet was a light yellow, but that wasn't what made his breath catch, it was the fact that the suit was skin tight, only holes for her head, hands, and tail. "So, what do you think?"  
  
"Wow!"  
  
Grave smiled and kissed Ranma on the cheek as she gathered the clothes that she wanted to buy and took them up to the front.  
  
Ranma, for his part was shocked, 'She kissed me?' He shook his head, and walked into the changing room, he quickly changed from his Gi to the black and brown boots and black pants. He then put on the white shirt and the arm bracers, but he didn't put the coat on just yet, he'd put it on later. He got his remaining clothes that he was going to buy and took them up to the front.  
  
Bill raised an eyebrow at the fact that Ranma and Grave were wearing what some of what they were going to buy, but he shrugged and looked over what they wanted to buy and started to tally it up by writing down the prices and adding them together. Ranma wondered why the guy wasn't using one of those teller machines that he had seen from time-to-time, but figured it was broke or something. What Ranma didn't know was that on Jade, technology was outlawed. [3] "Okay, all together, that's two hundred and ten silver pieces."  
  
Ranma blinked and took out the pouch of money that those bandits had 'given' him; he knew what silver was. "Hmm, here you go." With that Ranma dumped all his silver pieces out for Bill.  
  
Bill nodded and started counting them up, after a minute, he frowned lightly. "You are short."  
  
Ranma blinked, he and Grave were putting the clothes into bags. "Oh?"  
  
"Yes, this is only one hundred silver pieces, so I hope that you have one hundred and ten more pieces or you'll have to give back some of those clothes."  
  
Ranma frowned and looked at Grave, seeing how she looked dejected that she couldn't have all that she wanted Ranma pulled out a platinum piece and showed it to Bill. "What about this? How much is this?"  
  
Bill blinked. "That's equivalent to one hundred silver pieces, if you have ten more silver pieces, then we can have everything."  
  
Blinking Ranma looked back into the bag. "Well, I've got some more of those coins, plus some gold coins."  
  
"One gold coin will cover the extra cost."  
  
Ranma nodded and handed Bill the coins to cover the cost. He tied up the coin bag and helped get the rest of the clothes into the bag that he had. "So now what?"  
  
Grave shrugged as the two walked out. "Thank you Bill."  
  
"Sure."  
  
When the two left, Bill smiled. "What a cute couple."  
  
Outside Ranma winced when he saw that the amount of people had increased during the time when they were in the store. "Say Grave?"  
  
"Yeah?"  
  
"How about we just buy a little bit of food and then leave town? You said you didn't want um, what's-her-name to find you."  
  
"Brianna, Brianna Diggers, and yeah, I can see that we should hurry." Grave then blinked. "I've got an idea, I'll meet you outside of town, I'll just teleport outside of town and you can meet me close to where we entered."  
  
Ranma nodded and then Grave teleported away. He then walked to go and get some food to eat. _______________________________________________________________________  
  
[1] Tournament of Arms, it's a tournament that's held once every ten years to determine the best fighters on Jade. The winner of the Tournament is called the Armsmaster while the ten runners-up are called Weaponsmasters. These are the 11 best fighters on Jade.  
  
[2] Think Xena's weapon from Xena Warrior Princess, it is in the shape of a donut and Yoten uses this to fight. Oh, as for Yoten, he's a member of the Eastern Edge Guard and a fairly good fighter as he was able to fight Thropan fairly evenly, even though he was fighting at partial power. Oh, as for his eyes being closed all the time, think of Xellos's eyes, they look like they're closed all the time, but he actually has them open and is able to look around.  
  
[3] As for technology being outlawed on Jade, well, you see, many years ago, there were these creatures called Beta Phantoms, though to the people of Jade and the Retreat they were known as Shades or Shadows. They enslaved the entire populous using technology to limit magic user's abilities. When the first Armsmaster of Jade drove the Beta Phantoms away, the people of Jade and the Retreat agreed to outlaw technology in its entirety, as of late minor technologies have been allowed on Jade. Those from Earth, or the Earth Realm as the people of Jade call it, get more leeway when it comes to technology.  
  
[4] Oh, as for the monetary value, well, I don't know what each coin value is, so I decided to go by values of ten.  
  
1 Platinum Piece equals: 10 Gold Pieces 100 Silver Pieces 1000 Bronze Pieces 10,000 Brass Pieces 100,000 Copper Pieces  
  
1 Gold Piece equals: 10 Silver Pieces 100 Bronze Pieces 1000 Brass Pieces 10,000 Copper Pieces  
  
1 Silver Piece equals: 10 Bronze Pieces 100 Brass Pieces 1000 Copper Pieces  
  
1 Bronze Piece equals: 10 Brass Pieces 100 Copper Pieces  
  
1 Brass Piece equals: 10 Copper Pieces 


	5. 4

Grave's New Life  
  
Chapter Four  
  
Disclaimer: Sorry officer, I left my Disclaimer in my other pair of pants. But I'm only borrowing the characters from Ranma 1/2 and Gold Digger, I'll return them, honest!  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
Grave sighed as she rematerialized outside of Temul. She looked around and noticed that she was by the trees that were outside the city; using a levetation spell, she floated up and onto a tree branch. "Now I'll just wait for Ranma to show up."  
  
********  
  
Meanwhile, back in town, Ranma was walking around the market place, looking for some supplies. He had bought what he thought was good, just the base neccessities. "Let's see now, hmm, I guess getting a map would be a good thing. Gotta know where everything is." As he was walking, the (in)famous Saotome stomach growled, demanding food. "Yeah, yeah, I hear ya."  
  
As he was walking to find a resturaunt of some sort he stopped as he sniffed the air. "No way. That can't be." Ranma spun around and took another sniff of the air. "But, it is. Okonomiyaki." Ranma grinned and walked over to where the food was coming from.  
  
As he walked over there, he saw an old man, roughly eighty or so, wearing blue jeans and a plaid shirt. He was mostly bald with hair that covered his backside. He was complaining about how slow the food was to a brown haired and yellowed furred Kitsune who was tending the stand. She was five- foot-eight, had two tails and was wearing a Kimono  
  
As Ranma walked up to the stand he blinked upon seeing the Kitsune. "A Kitsune?"  
  
The old man scoffed at Ranma's apparent stupidity. "Can't believe he doesn't know what a Kitsune is. They're all over on Jade and the Retreat."  
  
Ranma blinked, not knowing exactly what the old man was talking about when he mentioned the Retreat, Ranma knew of Jade, but not the Retreat. The Kitsune shook her head and smiled at Ranma. "Don't worry about Tom, he's a nice person, I've known him for years."  
  
The old man, Tom, humphed and looked away. The Kitsune shook her head. "Grandpa, don't be so mean."  
  
Ranma blinked. "Grandpa?"  
  
Tom sighed and looked at Ranma. "I'm not really her grandfather young lad. But, you see, roughly fifteen years ago, when she and I were much younger, she was injured by a Dragon and wound up at my place.[1] I took care of her as best I could and she started to call me grandpa."  
  
Ranma nodded and the Kitsune looked at him. "So then, what will it be?"  
  
"You got Okonomiyaki?"  
  
The Kitsune laughed a bit. "Of course. What flavor do you want? I got shrimp, pork, seafood, combo, or fish-lovers."  
  
Ranma blinked. "Fish-lovers?"  
  
The Kitsune nodded. "Yes, six types of fish, including tuna, which is very popular with Werecats."  
  
Ranma shivered at the mention of the word 'cat', but nodded. "I'll try the fish-lovers then."  
  
The Kitsune nodded. "How many would you be having then?"  
  
"Three."  
  
The Kitsune nodded. "Coming right up." She then got to work.  
  
Ranma for his part blinked upon seeing a flame powered stove. True, he hadn't seen much in the way of technology since he lived on the road for ten years with his old man, but he thought that a stove should be a bit more advanced than that.  
  
Suddenly there was a sound, like that of a helicoptor, Ranma remembered what they were like, since his old man had him train at several military bases when he was younger. He looked and blinked upon seeing a young- looking Kitsune with light brown fur and two tails. The young Kitsune smiled at the vendor. "Hiya Uykou!"  
  
The Kitsune, Ukyou, looked at the young Kitsune. "Hello Yoten."  
  
Ranma scratched his head, this was interesting to him at least. 'Heh, she shares the same name as Ucchan. But she ain't my Ucchan, Ucchan wasn't a Kitsune, nor was she a girl.' Ranma shook his head at those thoughts, oh well, he had to get some food and a map.  
  
As Ukyou was cooking the meal Ranma looked around, he shivered upon seeing people with cat-like characteristics. He was tempted to run away, but thankfully, none of them came near him.  
  
Yoten looked at the kid who was looking around at everything with a sense of wonder. He had never seen this person before, but then again, they may have ran into each other before and just never said anything. After all, the world was a pretty big place. "So, what's your name kid?"  
  
Ranma looked at Yoten. "You're one to talk about me being a kid."  
  
Yoten narrowed his eyes a bit, but chuckled. "I'm 74 years old, kid."  
  
"Oh. Name's Ranma. What's yours."  
  
"Yoten."  
  
The two nodded at each other and then Ukyou got done with the food. "Here you go. That will be seven silver pieces."  
  
Ranma shrugged and handed over a gold piece. Ukyou nodded and opened a drawer, placed the gold piece in and then put a glove on and picked up three silver pieces.[2] She handed them over to Ranma. "There you go, you going to eat them here or eat them somewhere else?"  
  
Ranma shrugged, he had most of what he needed, he just needed a map. "Um, I'll eat them somewhere else."  
  
Ukyou nodded and pulled out three boxes and put each Okonomiyaki in a different one.  
  
As Ranma picked up the boxes he muttered, "Now then, where can I find a map?"  
  
Yoten looked at him and shrugged. Reaching into a pocket of holding, he pulled out a map of Jade. "Here you go. I don't need it."  
  
Ranma blinked and took it. As he was walking out he called back to Yoten, "Thanks, kid."  
  
"WHY YOU!"  
  
Ranma just laughed as he walked out of town.  
  
********  
  
Up in her tree, Grave blinked as she saw Ranma walk out of town with three pizza boxes. Smiling, the Lycanthropoid levetated out of her tree to go and see her friend. "Hey Ranma!"  
  
Ranma was a bit startled seeing Grave float like that, but smiled a bit at her. "Hey Grave. I got some food that we can eat."  
  
Grave landed and took a whiff of the air. "Is, is that tuna?" Her mouth watered at the smell.  
  
"Eh, tuna and a whole lot of other seafood."  
  
"Yay!" With that Grave jumped and glomped onto him. "Thank you, thank you, thank you!"  
  
Ranma had to steady himself from the sudden glomp, but he was able to stay on his feet.  
  
(----)  
  
Later that night Grave and Ranma were in the middle of the Dim Woods which were north of Temul. Ranma sighed a bit. "Well, at least no one followed us."  
  
Grave rolled her eyes. "They didn't follow us because they aren't looking for you remember?"  
  
Ranma nodded, made sense. The two walked into the woods a bit. Grave panted a bit. "Ranma, can we stop? It's getting late and I'm a bit tired."  
  
Ranma grimaced but nodded. Grave blinked a bit. "What's wrong?"  
  
Ranma sighed. "Nothing really. I just feel that we could cover more distance if we kept travelling."  
  
Grave shrugged. "What for? Is there any place we need to be at?"  
  
Ranma blinked and frowned. "I guess not."  
  
Grave nodded. "Great! So you see my point then."  
  
Ranma sighed. "I guess."  
  
Ranma then dropped his backpack and started to put up camp, while he did that, Grave used her magic and knocked down some dead trees that could be used as firewood.  
  
As he was digging through his backpack, Ranma blinked upon seeing some scrolls inside. "Hey! I forgot about these."  
  
Grave looked at him. "What is it?"  
  
"Well, about four years or so ago me and pops ended up at this weird library. Pops went around ta see if there was any martial arts instructors that I could learn from. Well, I came across this cresent moon that was near the entrance and all of a sudden a whole bunch of books came out of this chute. I wasn't sure what they were all about, considering that I was a bit younger back then." Ranma shook his head and waved his hands a bit. "Anyway, this bald guy with this patch-mark on his left eye came over and picked up the books and then copied them for me. i have to admit, the guy was pretty nice."  
  
Grave blinked as she listened. "Ranma, you've been to Shangri-La?"  
  
"Sangri-La?"  
  
"Yeah, it's also called the Library of Time. That guy you met, he must've been Kahn."  
  
Ranma shrugged. "I guess. Anyway, after I got those books copied I put them into my backpack just as pops came back and said that there was nothing to gain here. So, we left." Ranma then smirked. "After that we I had to do some serious training and I forgot about these scrolls. I never even had time to read them."  
  
Grave nodded and jerked a thumb behind her. "Is that enough firewood?"  
  
Ranma looked and nodded. "Heck yeah. That's actually more than enough."  
  
Grave smiled at hearing that, for some reason, hearing that from her friend meant a lot to her. "So, what's on the scrolls?"  
  
Ranma shrugged and opened one of them. "Hmm, heh, seems this one's all about martial arts techniques." Ranma opened all of them and found that they were all alike. "Heh. When I master these, I won't have to worry about pops getting me anymore."  
  
Grave blinked. "Oh?"  
  
Ranma nodded. "Yeah. There's several moves in here. Including tips and tricks on increasing your physical abilities, Ki and Chi manipulation, and even some on being able to become invisible."  
  
Grave shook her head. "Is that all you think about? Martial arts?"  
  
"Well, what else is there?"  
  
Grave rolled her eyes. "Have you even been to school before?"  
  
Ranma looked at her a bit curiously. "A couple times before, why?"  
  
"When was the last time you went to school?"  
  
"About a year or so ago, why?"  
  
Grave sighed. "You aren't going to get anywhere in life without schooling."  
  
"You sure?"  
  
Grave shrugged. "Well, you don't need complete schooling. Just enough to not be considered stupid."  
  
"Ah, I see." Truthfully, Ranma didn't see, but he found it easier to deal with people if he just agreed with them. After all, it kept his old man from hackling him by agreeing to what he said, even if he disagreed later.  
  
"So, what are these techniques?"  
  
"Truthfully? I have no clue."  
  
Grave facefaulted upon hearing that.  
  
Ranma chuckled a bit. "Sorry, I haven't read any of them yet."  
  
Grave shook her head as she stood up, of all the guys that could become her friend, she had to have one that didn't have a full education.  
  
********  
  
Julia Brigand-Diggers, the Armsmaster of Jade and mother of three, sat by an open window of the inn where she was staying at until the Tournament of Arms started. She shook her head and sighed as she went over what she had been told had happened to her youngest daughter. "So, a curse gone awry huh?" Julia muttered to herself as she thought about what was going to happen in the near future. Well, she knew that the opening ceremonies for the Tournament of Arms started in one week, and that the tournament would last a month, but, after that, she had no clue.  
  
She shook her head as her youngest daughter came into the room. "Well?"  
  
Brianna shook her head. "They aren't going to ask the mage council for help on this one mom." Brianna sighed and looked down at the floor. "This, this is all my fault that Gaja was killed. If only I wasn't so stupid!"  
  
Julia frowned and went over to hug her daughter. "Shh, Brianna, no one blames you for what happened there. You couldn't help that it happened, that's all." Brianna just nodded while hugging her mom back.  
  
Julia shook her head, Brianna blamed herself for something that wasn't her fault at all. True, the technology and stuff was overboard, but Gaja didn't die from that stuff, there was no silver in it after all.  
  
After a few minutes of compatable silence, Julia blinked as she realized something for the first time. "Brianna dear, what happened to your hair? The spots are gone."  
  
Brianna blinked. "They are?" She looked at her mom questioningly.  
  
"Yes, your hair is pure blonde, no spots in it."  
  
Brianna scratched her head. "I don't know. Is there a mirror in here somewhere?"  
  
Julia nodded and pointed to one on her right. Brianna went over to the mirror and blinked, her mother was right, her hair was now pure blonde, no dark spots in it at all, she still had her left eye-stripe though. "Honestly, I don't have a clue."  
  
Julia shrugged. "It must not be to important then." Brianna nodded at that, she didn't think much of it herself.  
  
"Heh, my own personal look. Even Cheetah and Gina don't have a look anywhere near like what I got."  
  
Julia smirked. "Well, at least it's better than that time you dyed your hair green."  
  
"I don't think it was that bad mom."  
  
"What about the nosering?"  
  
"Well, okay, that was a bit much, but it wasn't so bad."  
  
"The looped earings?"  
  
"It's a fashion statement."  
  
"The mohawk?"  
  
"I was just trying for my own look mom. I was tired of being compared to Britanny and Gina all the time and wanted something different."  
  
Julia smirked. "Brianna, I don't think anyone's ever compared you to those two before."  
  
Brianna rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah, sure, whatever mom."  
  
Julia raised an eyebrow. "Oh? Someone has?"  
  
Brianna shrugged. "Well, occassionally when Brit and I are having some sort of race or competition she always says that she's better than me."  
  
Julia nodded, she'd have to talk to Britanny about that sometime.  
  
Suddenly there was a knocking on the door. Julia raised an eyebrow, wondering who would want to talk to her. She went over to the door and opened it to see the face of Seance, who was standing there. "Hello Seance. What can I do for you?"  
  
"Julia, I wanted to ask you something."  
  
"What is it?"  
  
"Do you know any Warmages?"  
  
Julia blinked, that was an odd question, but still. "Yes, I know of one, her name's Karia, one of the ten Weaponsmasters of Jade and a Dark Elf who's a master Warmage. Why?"  
  
"I want to meet her."  
  
"Why Seance?"  
  
"Because, I want to change magic schools."  
  
Brianna gasped as she heard that, and Julia raised an eyebrow, there had to be something on the young aura mage's mind for him to say something like that. "Why do you ask that Seance?"  
  
"Because, because I failed to protect Genn from G'Nolga, heck, she even did some serious harm to me because I couldn't stop her."  
  
Julia smiled a bit at the young mage. "Is that all? Seance, dear, you have to understand that G'Nolga is one of the most dangerous opponents any aura mage can fight. She's highly resistant to magic and she's my equal in fighting."  
  
"I still failed. I should've been able to stop her."  
  
Preview of next chapter: "Hey, it's me, Grave Digger. Well, in the next chapter, the plot of this story gets moving on as we skip a week ahead in time. Oh, as for what Ranma and myself will be doing, well, just travelling, him training in martial arts, while I try and get better at using magic, kind of boring if you ask me. Anyway, you just know that there's going to be problems happening all over the place. There's a bald- headed guy that throws lightning around, a purple-haired woman with 100 or so personalities, a blue-armored Undead Knight, a man-turned-woman, and a very angry Dwarf." _______________________________________________________________________  
  
[1] That was a reference to the Dragon's Revolt that happened on the Retreat, some of it spilled over to Jade. Anyway, the thing about the Dragon's Revolt is this, something terrible, in the Dragon's eyes, happened to one of their own members. So, they revolted and the Kitsune of the Eastern Edge Guard tried to stop them, only to have their host bodies end up dead. Kitsune are fox-spirits that need a host body to be able to exist on Earth, Jade, or other physical Realms. Places like the Retreat or the Undead Realm are partly physical planes, but are mostly spirit planes, as such the Kitsune can exist on these planes without needing a host body to survive.  
  
[2] Oh, as for the Kitsune putting on a glove to touch silver, well, the thing is this, silver weakens Kitsune. Now, as for why they do so, well, Kitsune are off-shoots of Werecreatures and while silver doesn't burn their souls like it does to a Werecreature, it does weaken them. 


	6. 5

Grave's New Life  
  
Part Five  
  
Disclaimer: Heck, I don't own these guys. I don't own anyone or anything. Save this story. Now, will you evil demon lawyers leave me alone?  
  
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Grave, wearing her purple mage-suit, frowned, she hadn't seen Ranma in a about five minutes and she was a bit worried. Oh sure, she could handle herself and knew that Ranma could take care of himself, reasonably well. But, still she was worried about him. It had been a week since they had started traveling together and Grave could feel herself getting more and more attracted to Ranma. Grave shook her head, there was a good reason why she wasn't moving too fast with Ranma. One, she wanted to make sure that he didn't have a girlfriend or something similar back home and two, she didn't want to be like her sisters, going into a relationship with both guns blazing, so to speak.  
  
Grave sighed and levetated upward to go and look for her friend. The last week had been pretty boring, for her at least. Mostly traveling, they kept heading north. Unkown to either of them, they were a couple of hours north of the capital city of Tessa. During the traveling, the two trained as best they could without instructors, well, Grave did, Ranma really didn't need instructors, since he had those scrolls on different martial arts, particularily Ki and Chi manuvers.  
  
A few minutes later Grave blinked as she came across Ranma, in female form, wearing those black pants that she had bought a week ago, as well as a red shirt and the boots; at a small stream looking rather down. Grave frowned and wondered what was bothering her friend now. In the past week Grave had seen Ranma get down over certain things when the pigtailed martial artist didn't think she was looking. First there was the fact that Ranma hadn't seen his mother for so long that he didn't know if she was alive. Grave could sympathize, she hadn't seen her mother, Julia Diggers ever, the only reason that she knew that her mother was still alive was because of the memories that she inherited from Britanny and Gina.  
  
Then there was the fact that he always had to leave behind his friends. Grave could sympathize with that as well, as she didn't have any, save for Ranma.  
  
Looking at him, Grave had to sigh to herself as she looked at him. The biggest thing he got down on was the fact that he said that he'd protect her, and the first time trouble came along, he didn't do such a good job.  
  
'And then there was that Troll.' It didn't help matters when they were passing by a river when a Troll had attacked them. Ranma and Grave had both discovered how tough, strong and quick healing Trolls were.  
  
Grave shook her head. That had not been a pretty fight. 'If Ranma hadn't distracted that Troll long enough, I wouldn't have been able to stop it.' Grave frowned as she remembered that fight, that Troll had moved faster than what they thought a Troll could and that creature took Ranma down with a punch to the ribs.  
  
Grave grimaced, she still remembered the sound of all of Ranma's ribs cracking and breaking from that hit. [1] 'Stupid Trolls.' She shook her head, she didn't know exactly how, but Grave knew, when she saw how badly off Ranma was, healing spells to fix him right up.  
  
Grave shook her head. It had taken two days to get Ranma to understand that neither of them had understood what a Troll could do and that he was lucky to be alive. Of course, that had made him want to become a better fighter all the more.  
  
So, wondering just what was bugging her friend this time, Grave hovered over to him and hugged him from behind. Surpisingly, to Grave, Ranma, or rather Ranma-chan, didn't seem startled when she hugged her. "Ranma? What's wrong?"  
  
Ranma-chan looked at the water with a forlorn expression. "Look at me. This isn't the body I was born with."  
  
Grave blinked. "So? That's not too bad a problem is it?"  
  
Ranma-chan shook her head. "All my life I was raised to be a man among men, not a woman." The cursed martial artist sighed. "I'm just a pathetic freak."  
  
Grave frowned and hugged her friend. "First off, you're not pathetic. Nor are you a freak."  
  
Ranma-chan shook her head. "I am! Look at me! I've been training for ten years to be the best, for what?" The boy-turned-girl threw her hands up. "To nearly get my ass handed to me by some stupid bandits? To nearly die because of some creature that attacked for no reason?"  
  
Grave hugged her friend a bit tighter. "Ranma, you couldn't help it."  
  
Ranma-chan shuddered. "I mean, I change genders with a splash of cold water. People aren't going to be able to accept that. Not one bit." The redhead sighed. "I'm surprised that you can even stand being around a freak like me."  
  
Grave shook her head and turned Ranma-chan's head a bit so that she could look at her. "You got it all wrong. You are not a freak, trust me on that."  
  
Ranma-chan turned her head, or tried to, as Grave gave her a quick kiss on the lips. "I would never kiss a freak.  
  
Ranma-chan was stunned, she then blushed and turned away. "What do you see in me? What can you see in someone like me?"  
  
Grave blinked. Either Ranma was giving some serious thought into having a relationship, or she was curious as to what the Lycanthropoid thought of her, either way, what she said here could very well determine if Ranma would recover from that last fight at all.  
  
Grave sighed. 'This is not going to be easy, not at all.' Moving over to sit down by her friend, Grave looked Ranma in the eyes. "You want to know what I see when I look at you?" Ranma-chan nodded and Grave smiled a bit at her, Grave then took Ranma-chan's hand and held it with her own. "Well, I see someone who's my best friend. Someone who, regardless of gender, tries his, or her, hardest to do everything correctly, even when he or she can't do it." Grave then sighed. "I see someone who's going under an unusual trial and having to cope with it, but not knowing how to, and doing a rather remarkable job at that. I see my friend, my first friend that I made on my own, who was able to calm me down when I was partly crazy. To make me see that I didn't have to kill others to be my own person. Finally, I see someone who I could spend the rest of my life with."  
  
Ranma-chan blinked. "Huh?"  
  
Grave sighed. "Nevermind. I guess it was too much to hope for." With that she got up, intending to walk away, when Ranma grabbed her on the arm.  
  
"Wait! Tell me. What's wrong?" Ranma-chan didn't know what was upsetting her friend, but she wanted to help out as best she could.  
  
Grave grimaced, though Ranma couldn't see that, her breathing started to accelerate a bit as she tried to tell Ranma just how she felt. She wasn't Britanny, Brianna nor Gina, her looks weren't much, at least in her eyes, and she didn't feel as if she could catch anyone's attention with her looks.  
  
"Grave?"  
  
Grave turned around and saw that Ranma had stood up, she grabbed her in a hug and kissed the redhead on the lips with a passion born out of desperation, there was a alterior reason why Grave was kissing Ranma-chan, she wanted, no needed, to know that she was her own person.  
  
Ranma-chan, for her part, was shocked stupid. She honestly didn't know what to do, she had never been in such a situation before, and Genma had never taught her what to do in a situation.  
  
Grave broke the kiss after feeling that there was no reaction from Ranma- chan. "I, I'm sorry." She mentally kicked her own ass, how could she act like that? The guy probably had a girlfriend back home or something. Her eyes teared up as she turned to run, or rather tried to turn as Ranma-chan grabbed her shoulders.  
  
"Grave, please, I, I'm not so good with people. I've only had to deal with pops in my life. So, why? What's wrong?"  
  
Grave just shook her head, her mind was yelling at her to just tell him how she felt dammit! "Ranma, I, I," Dammit, why was this so #$%&ing hard? "I really care for you." 'Tell him! Tell him! Tell him! You coward!'  
  
Ranma-chan nodded. "Okay."  
  
Grave looked into Ranma-chan's eyes, she took a deep breath, and looked down and away a bit. "R, Ranma, I, I love you!" Grave took a deep breath to calm her nerves. She looked at Ranma. "I said it. I love you. I can't help it, you're so kind to me, you've been there for me, you help me out when you can." [2]  
  
Ranma-chan for her part was stunned, sure, she knew Grave was cute, but she wasn't sure how she felt for the Lycanthropoid. She let go of Grave's shoulders and turned to walk away. "R, Ranma?" Ranma-chan winced as she heard how weak, vunerable and soft Grave's voice became. "Please, tell me, do you love me?"  
  
Ranma-chan took a breath. "I, I'm not too sure Grave. I need ta think this out." With that the redhead walked back to their camp.  
  
Grave fell to her knees, both her hands hitting the ground, as she closed her eyes and tears fell out. 'Dammit! I blew it.' She drew in a stuttery breath. 'I knew it, he has to have someone else, that's why he didn't react at all.'  
  
After a few minutes of crying to herself, Grave got up and went back to camp slowly, sadly, and all depressed.  
  
********  
  
Meanwhile in another part of Jade, at a temple, a meeting of the minds was taking place, considering that one of the people there had over one hundred minds in her head, this was a literal fact.  
  
The shortest person there, around four-foot-eight, was a Dwarf with long curly brown hair that went down to the middle of her back. She was wearing a gray, one piece war dress that went over her left shoulder. Her name was G'Nolga, the disputed Armsmaster of Jade.  
  
Next in the room was a pinkish haired woman, who was wearing glasses as she held a rather large book. She also wore white gloves over her hands, long black sleeves that went from her wrists to the middle of her upper arms, a black mini-skirt that was so short that it barely covered her hips, in fact, one could see her panties without even trying. She also wore long, black boots that went from her feet to the middle of her thighs. Her name was Array, a supervillianess from Earth with the ability to make as many different bodies as she wanted, however, when she was done with the body and dematerialized it, the personality remained in her head.  
  
The next person in the room was a woman who, a week prior had been a man, unfortunately, she ran afoul with a potion that was only meant to work on females, which changed her gender, but, unlike Ranma's Jusenkyo curse, this was permanent. She had brown-orange hair that was rather short, she was around six-foot-two, increadibly buxom, wearing a brown dress that concealed what was neccessary, but still showed off all of her lines and curves. Across her back was a HUGE sword that most people could never master in their life-times. Her name was Hanza, a wanted mercenary and thief.  
  
The next person in the room was a six-foot-ten decently built bald man. He was wearing green robes with brown colored strips on the side, he was a bald and very calm person. He had the ability to conduct electricty. His name was Tirant, a Super-Villian from Earth, who, at one time, had tried to take over New York City, and more, before he was stopped by Britanny, Brianna, Genn, Danielle Carter, who was also known as the Pink Avenger, and Barbara Duncan, also known as Crush.  
  
The final person in this group was a seven-foot-one Undead Ghost Knight, he was usually seen carrying two rapier-style Katanas. He was dressed in blue armor from head to toe, he wore a helmet and facemask. His name was Rook, a high ranking Undead creature that existed on Jade. His armor had a magical enchantment on it to allow him to teleport behind anyone who attacked him. However, it had it's flaws, it couldn't teleport instantly after reappearing.  
  
This group was mulling around a bit after reviewing what they just had heard. Hanza shook her head. "It doesn't matter if the Northern Edge Guard is coming after us. There's no way that we have to worry about them as soon as our plans go off."  
  
Tirant nodded, but answered calmly. "I agree Hanza, but still, we should not underestimate them, they are worthy advasaries after all, they did manage to defeat both you and G'Nolga in the past."  
  
G'Nolga scowled. "You know that was because that Jagwere went into that Lunar Rave [3] of his. Not to mention that he used the same move that Julia had used on me ten years previous."  
  
Tirant nodded. "Of course G'Nolga. I am merely pointing out the fact that we shouldn't take them lightly."  
  
Rook chuckled. "They have their own problems to deal with, and not just us."  
  
G'Nolga looked at him. "You mean the rumors of a small Werecheetah?"  
  
Rook nodded. "Indeed G'Nolga. I'm not sure if they're real or not, but..."  
  
"They are."  
  
Everyone turned to look at Array. "I am the Sheriff of Seer's Hamlet, a week or so ago, this small Werecheetah that was using magic went up against Brianna Diggers in a fight." She then looked at G'Nolga and Hanza. "I did not risk everything back then just to have you two kidnap the Armsmaser's daughter. Though it did help our plans out, you didn't need to threaten to kill her G'Nolga."  
  
G'Nolga shook her head. "I didn't have a real reason to kill her. The brat didn't put up much of a fight and Julia did cooperate, so, I had no reason to kill her." Of course, G'Nolga wasn't mentioning that she had kidnapped Brianna when the Lycanthropoid was asleep, nor did she mention that it was entirely Tirant's idea, since the bald crime lord had asked her not to tell anyone about it.  
  
Array shook her head. "Anyway, if we could get that Werecheetah to fight for us, it would be much easier to deal with the Northern Edge Guard."  
  
Hanza rolled her eyes. "What does this Werecheetah have that the rest of us don't?"  
  
"Magic abilities, healing abilities. I don't know, maybe a dislike for the Northern Edge Guard? Not to mention that she may feel cornered and is trying to stay away from them for now."  
  
Hanza groaned and looked at Tirant. "Your girlfriend has to be so accurate doesn't she?"  
  
Tirant smiled, barely. "Of course. But the question is, where is this Werecheetah?"  
  
Array shook her head. "Last I heard she was in Temul, before the start of their Harvest Festival. Since then, no one's seen her. Fortunately, for us, the Edge Guard seem to be reluctant to go and look for her."  
  
G'Nolga blinked. "Hey wait a second! That Werecheetah was the one that was fighting just before I killed that Werecat mage, correct?"  
  
Array nodded. "Yes, and I suppose seeing you kill the mage made her fearful, causing her to leave the area."  
  
"Whatever, anyway, I figure that if we can find her, we can get her to work for us easily, just that we say we can give her protection against the Edge Guard when they come for her."  
  
Rook looked at the Dwarf. "You sure? The reports that I received told me that she was half crazy."  
  
G'Nolga shrugged. "If we can use her, we will, if not, we kill her."  
  
Tirant shook his head. "No, there are other ways to get her to work for us. And even if she doesn't work for us directly, we can manipulate her into working for us indirectly. Like, making sure that she is near the Edge Guard and having them fight her."  
  
G'Nolga humphed. "You just have to be logical don't you Tirant?"  
  
"Of course. I believe in getting people to work for you, even if you must "persuade" them to do so." The bald man smirked. "If, say, she had someone she was interested in, we could kidnap that person and then have her work for us."  
  
Hanza shook her head. "Of course, we have to find her."  
  
Rook chuckled. "Leave that to me. I'll find her the instant I get back to my castle. My scrying glass will be perfect for finding her."  
  
Tirant nodded. "You do that. G'Nolga still has to attend the Tournament of Arms for the month, and we have to do what we can to make sure that Julia Diggers can't enter."  
  
G'Nolga smirked. "No problem there. I should be able to handle it."  
  
Tirant nodded. "Good."  
  
********  
  
Sheila looked at her brother as they sat down at a booth at the Dragon's Jaw Tavern. "So, there's nothing that can be done?"  
  
Gar shook his head. "Nope. The last time anyone saw the girl, Grave Digger, was in the city of Temul, there was a human with her, but most people assumed that they were just going the same way and that he hadn't been able to find out what she had done just yet."  
  
Sheila sighed, closed her eyes and leaned back against the booth she was sitting at. "You have got to be kidding me. No one's seen her since?!"  
  
Gar sighed and shook his head. His sister still blamed herself for the whole mess that had occured, not that anyone else did, it was just simply bad luck. "People have seen, on occasion, a small blonde haired girl and a black haired boy in the forests, but since no one could prove that it was Grave Digger, then we have nothing to go on."  
  
Sheila sighed. "Couple this with the problems that popped up at the Tournament the other day..." Sheila didn't elaborate, she just shook her head, her brother knew what she was talking about.  
  
Gar sighed. "I know. This just doesn't get any easier. Especially when we had to take care of those two vampires, Riassat and Ryper."  
  
Sheila shook her head at that one, those two had been causing some serious problems in the Dim Crag mountains and the Northern Edge Guard had barely been able to beat them. Fortunately, it wasn't as bad as it could've been. [4]  
  
"So now what bro?"  
  
"There isn't much we can do right now. Come on, Onoli wants to talk to us about something concerning the Tournament."  
  
Sheila sighed and went with her brother to go and meet their leader.  
  
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[1] By the way, Trolls hit very, very hard. Even to someone such as Ranma, getting hit by a Troll would definately bust his ribs. Oh don't worry, he'll be getting better as a fighter as time goes on. I should mention that Trolls are known to be rather nasty, picking fights for no real reason outside of fighting, Brod, a Troll-Giant, is an exception.  
  
[2] For a Ranma 1/2 romance this was fast, but for a Gold Digger romance, as in, how fast it takes someone to go from meeting someone else to falling in love with them, a week is rather slow. I'm not kidding. In the Miniseries Britanny went from fighting with Strype to falling for him in under twenty minutes, and less than two hours later, she was making out with him, practically jumping into his pants.  
  
Gina met Ryan once and was paralized by her hormones, same with Seance. Hell, the combined time that she had known Ryan from their first two meetings was less than an hour and she was willing to be his girlfriend. Brianna was born with love for Strype and lusted after Genn's male form, considering that she had never really met Strype and had known Genn for less than a day, it was rather fast. Don't forget Julia and Theo. In the span of an hour or so, Julia went from being angry at Theo to be willing to spend the rest of her life with him.  
  
However, from falling in love to wanting to get married, well, that takes some time, at least a couple of years.  
  
[3] The Lunar Rave is an ability that only one in a million Werecreatures have. It occurs during the Solar Eclipse increasing a Were's abilities thirty-fold.  
  
[4] This is a reference to the Edge Guard Miniseries. In that series, to make a long story short, the Edge Guard caught and punished a Vampire named Ryper. But, they didn't know that he had a lover by the name of Riassat. Anyway, Riassat took control of the Eastern Edge Gaurd to gain their powers to get revenge. The Eastern Edge Guard is made up of Kitsune, not Werecats. Riassat managed to take control of the entire Eastern Edge Guard, save a Kitsune named Terio, and in the process killed off Mitsuko, a Dark Kisune. 


	7. 6

Grave's New Life  
  
Part Six  
  
Do I need a Disclaimer? Come on! I'm not the High Lord Fred Perry, nor am I Rumiko Takahashi-sama. How can I own Gold Digger or Ranma 1/2? I don't.  
  
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Ranma-chan blinked as she read the scroll. "Okay. I guess I'm doing everything right."  
  
"Um, Ranma? What are you doing?"  
  
Ranma-chan blinked and turned her head as she looked at Grave, who was wearing blue pants and a white tank top. "Nothing much."  
  
Grave looked at her incredulously. "Nothing much? You're standing upside down on a tree limb. I'd say that's more than nothing much."  
  
"Well, you're upside down too you know. And you're floating in mid-air."  
  
"Well, I'm using magic, you're not. What you're doing is just, well, weird, to me at least."  
  
Ranma-chan shrugged. "It's some sort of Ninjitsu training technique. You use Ki, or Chakra as they call it, focus it at your feet, then match the tree's level of energy and then you should be able to walk up a tree and hang upside down for hours."  
  
Grave sighed. "I suppose." The short Lycanthropoid had to admit, at least the last few days hadn't been so bad, compared to what it had been at camp immediately after she had admitted her feelings for the martial artist.  
  
Shaking her head, Grave fought the urge to go and teleport away to cry by herself. That night had been the first one that she didn't sleep in the same bed as Ranma since she met him. Sure, they did nothing sexual, but the fact that Ranma held her every night just made it seem more intimate than sex ever could be.  
  
Grave frowned mentally, that wasn't exactly true, the second night after they met she had tried to sleep by herself, but she had nightmares, scary ones, she didn't remember them much, save for the fact that they were terrifying. Being in the same bed, as Ranma seemed to chase the nightmares away, not that she would complain about that. She rather liked the martial artist.  
  
Grave blinked as a hand waved in front of her face. "Um, Grave? You okay? You kinda spaced out for a moment there."  
  
Grave sighed and looked at the redhead, oh how she wanted to hug her and kiss her and spend the rest of their life together, but it didn't seem as if it would happen. "Nothing much, just thinking."  
  
Ranma-chan blinked. "About what?"  
  
Grave shook her head, she hovered a bit closer to the redhead. "Just thinking about why my senses aren't as strong as they should be."  
  
Ranma-chan shrugged. "Oh well."  
  
Grave shook her head. "So, how long are you going to be training?"  
  
"Um, not sure. I'm just going to read a bit on Ki, Chi and a bit more."  
  
"A bit more?" Grave scratched her head; she didn't know what to make of that. "What do you mean a bit more?"  
  
Ranma-chan looked at the scroll in her hands and then looked back at Grave. "Well, Grave, this scroll describes just how Ki and Chi works, not to mention some of its weaknesses."  
  
"Weaknesses? Like what?"  
  
"Well, emotional Ki is good if you need to learn how to use it, but it seems to have some serious drawbacks."  
  
Grave tilted her head to the side a bit, biting her lower lip she asked. "What drawbacks?"  
  
Ranma-chan shrugged. "Several, the biggest one is the fact that the more you use one single emotion, the stronger it becomes until it dominates your life."  
  
Grave nodded. "That makes some sense."  
  
"Yeah, well, it mentioned that all emotions have their flaws. Using confidence leads to arrogance and underestimation of one's opponent, determination just makes a person unwilling to change their views on anything, sadness and depression just makes a person want to quit living and commit suicide, anger makes a person go into a rage at the smallest thing, rage makes a person a cold-blooded killer, greed makes a person cowardly and only wanting to please themselves, while lust makes a person a complete pervert." [1]  
  
Grave blinked and then started giggling lightly.  
  
Ranma-chan scratched her head. "Um, what?"  
  
"It's nothing, but, hee hee, I just had a, ha ha, thought of you being a complete, hee hee, pervert. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Grave had to hold on to her sides because she was laughing so darn hard.  
  
Ranma-chan started laughing as well that was pretty funny. Unfortunately, the laughter disrupted her concentration and she fell out of the tree and onto the ground, headfirst.  
  
Grave stopped laughing and floated down to where Ranma-chan was. "Ranma! Oh my god! Are you okay?"  
  
Ranma-chan groaned as she got her head out of the ground. "Yeah, that tickled a little bit."  
  
Grave goggled, which looked funny, as she was still upside down. "TICKLED?! You fell forty feet and landed on your head."  
  
"I should've landed on my feet." Shaking her head, Ranma-chan sat up. "Um, Grave, you're still upside down."  
  
Grave nodded and spun herself right side up. "No wonder I felt dizzy." Grave shook her head to get the blood flowing normally again.  
  
Ranma-chan stretched her arms and sighed a bit. "How long has it been since I met you?"  
  
Grave scratched her head a bit. "Um, I don't really know. I think about half a month, but that's it."  
  
Ranma-chan nodded. "Yeah, okay. But, I've got to toughen and strengthen my body up."  
  
"Um, why?"  
  
Ranma-chan sighed. "The scroll also made mention of how gathering too much Ki or Chi can be lethal."  
  
"Lethal?"  
  
Ranma-chan nodded. "Yeah, normally I wouldn't give it too much thought, but the scroll said that building up your Ki and Chi reserves without building up your body at the same time can be lethal. If you charge too much Ki or Chi through your body and your body isn't capable of handling the energy, well, it wasn't too clear but."  
  
"But?" Grave pressed, this was kind of interesting, maybe some of this stuff applied to magic as well.  
  
Ranma-chan shook her head. "Well, it didn't say exactly, but the scroll said that gathering Ki or Chi is like filling up a bottle with water and if you fill up that bottle too fast, what happens?"  
  
"It explodes." Grave blinked. "Wait a second! You mean that if your body can't handle the amount of Ki or Chi or whatever it's called, you'll explode and die?!"  
  
Ranma-chan grimaced. "More than likely."  
  
Grave shivered. "I wonder if magic is like that?"  
  
Ranma-chan just shrugged.  
  
(----)  
  
Later that night Ranma, having been turned back to a guy by Grave's "Scalding Mist", was sitting in a tree thinking a bit. He had been here for a half month now and he didn't see much improvement on his abilities since he had gotten there. 'Sigh. I really need to go and do some serious training, but how?' He frowned; the best type of training was sparring against someone else.  
  
Looking over to the tent he heard Grave whimper a bit and he winced. 'Dang it.' Sighing Ranma jumped out of the tree and went over to the tent, when he got inside he could tell she was sleeping, but she was shivering, and it wasn't that cold. 'Another nightmare.' He sighed again and walked over to her and lay down next to the small Lycanthropoid and hugged her. True, he was on the outside of the blankets, and she was underneath them, but the feeling of his body helped calm Grave down tremendously.  
  
Grave whimpered unconsciously and snuggled up to the body that was near her. Ranma sighed as he felt her calm down a bit. Ranma couldn't explain it, but he definitely liked the girl that he was holding right now, well, actually, he could since Grave was his first friend in a long time. 'But, she said she loves me.' The pigtailed martial artist frowned. 'But, do I love her?' He sighed and shook his head. "I don't know."  
  
He looked down as he felt something nuzzling his chest. He smiled a bit upon seeing Grave's face, being so relaxed she looked so peaceful. 'Like a kid sleeping.' He didn't think of Grave as a little kid, but rather the way she looked now, she looked like a little kid.  
  
As Ranma looked at Grave, he couldn't help but admire her right eye stripe he had to wonder just how she had that. She had said something about a curse and some science that was the cause of it, but Ranma didn't really pay any attention to that.  
  
Shaking his head, the pigtailed martial artist had to wonder just what she was dreaming about.  
  
(----)  
  
Inside Grave's head was a chaotic scene, first off, the area was completely shrouded by all different colors, mostly blue, black, red, and green swirling around and around in an unorganized way, there was also motes of white, pink, purple, and yellow in there as well. In the center of this was Grave, who was curled up into a ball and shivering.  
  
"Leave me alone! Please! Just leave me alone!" The Lycanthropoid whimpered out as invisible blows racked her body. Grave had her eyes screwed together tightly as she could hear voices, cruel ones taunting her. "Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!"  
  
Suddenly the colors merged together and Grave opened her eyes a bit to see that the colors had come together to create twisted versions of the people that she had met or knew before she had met Ranma.  
  
The first figure that stepped forward was a mean and cruel version of Britanny Diggers. The image smirked cruelly at her. "Oh, you really think you're something don't you? Being the big, bad magic user. So what? Dad is a better magic user than you are. You're nothing widdle Gwave Digger. HAHAHAHAHAHA!"  
  
Grave screwed her eyes closed as tears fell down her face; this just caused more harsh words to flow out. "Aww, the little curse is crying, how sad." This was the voice of Gina Diggers. Even though Grave had her eyes closed, she could tell that the Gina in her mind smirked at her. "What a pathetic creature, she really doesn't deserve to live. After all, it was pure dumb luck and circumstances that let her be born in the first place."  
  
Grave shivered, that was true, she had to bite back a scream as a powerful blow hit her in the chin, forcing her eyes to open as she flew backwards. Suddenly, her momentum stopped because she was grabbed from behind, her arms being put into an arm-lock. Grimacing, she looked over her shoulder and her eyes widened in fear as she saw Thabian, the Werewolf that helped Jetta nearly kill Britanny before she was born.  
  
Thabian smirked, his teeth long fangs that were coated in what Grave could only describe as blood. Suddenly Grave felt a tremendous blow to her stomach, which would've caused her to double over had it not been for Thabian holding on to her.  
  
Coughing Grave spit out some blood and raised her head, only to see Jetta, more muscular than ever before, her claws sharper and with glowing red eyes. She didn't get to contemplate on it any longer as a fist lashed out faster than what she ever could ever remember the Werewolf doing, smashing her in the gut, then a second one came, but this time it hit her in the face, then several blows were racked all over her body as not an inch was spared.  
  
When Jetta was done, Thabian dropped Grave to the floor, where she started coughing and hacking up blood.  
  
Trying to stand up, while taking in stuttery breaths that was excruciatingly painful due to the fact that she was swallowing blood as well, Grave placed her hands on her knees as she attempted to push herself up, only to get blasted back by something hot and cold.  
  
Grave grunted painfully as she landed on her back, looking she saw Sheila and Gar as the two Jagweres smirked cruelly at her. The smaller of the two, which wasn't much, considering that she looked huge, muscular and demonic sneered at her. "Oh look, the pathetic being thinks she has a right to live." She just chuckled. "I don't think so."  
  
Grave whimpered, her lower lip trembling as more and more harsh words came to her. Suddenly a shadow loomed over her, she didn't know whom it was, since she couldn't make out any features, but the figure drew a sword and sliced downwards.  
  
(----)  
  
Grave awoke with a gasp, her eyes wide, her breathing heavy; she was sweating profusely and trembling terribly. She sat up and rubbed her head as she tried to calm down. 'Only a dream, only a dream.' She then started crying softly since she knew it was true. 'They'll just kill me, I know it.'  
  
Suddenly Ranma came in, he had stepped outside because he had heard a noise and wondered just what it was, when he got out there, he saw that it was just some squirrels running through the leaves.  
  
He frowned upon seeing Grave look so frightened. "Grave?"  
  
Breathing heavily and staring out at nothing, Grave turned to Ranma. "R- Ranma?"  
  
Ranma nodded and the next thing he knew Grave was hugging him tightly, sobbing into his chest. His arms wrapped around her awkwardly, to him it was a bit awkward anyway, as Grave just buried her face into his chest and cried. "Grave?"  
  
"Hold me!" The Lycanthropoid cried out. "Just hold me please?!" Ranma nodded, he didn't know what was going on, but he'd do his best to help his friend out.  
  
********  
  
On Earth Brianna sighed a bit as she saw her sister Britanny try and strangle a Djinni named Madrid to death for hitting on her husband, fortunately, Strype was holding her back from doing so. Shaking her head, she got up and left the room.  
  
Gina, a five-foot-ten inch blonde haired girl wearing blue jeans and a short-sleeved blue shirt, blinked upon seeing Brianna leave the room. "What the heck?"  
  
She was going to go after her sister, something just wasn't right about the way that Brianna was acting so down. She was about to go after her sister when Madrid got in her face. "Gina, forget your sister for a moment and listen to what I have to tell you."  
  
Gina mentally frowned, something was bugging her sister and she wanted to help, but she figured that listening to what Madrid had to tell her wouldn't hurt too much. Though she had to wonder about these Djinni, why the hell did they always wear so little? Since all Madrid had on was just purple pants and an open ring that barely covered the important bits of her breasts.  
  
"Oh, all right, but make it quick. I've got something that I need to do."  
  
Madrid nodded. "Very well."  
  
With that, the Djinni started to speak to Gina about her problems.  
  
(----)  
  
Walking outside a bit Brianna sighed and looked to the sky. 'Everything, everything that happened was my fault. If I hadn't shown up, Gaja wouldn't have been killed, Seer's Hamlet wouldn't have been destroyed, my other half wouldn't be running around doing stuff that only God knows about.'  
  
She sighed heavily and leaned back against the wall of the house, closing her eyes she rested a bit until she felt a hand on her shoulder, turning, she saw Gina there. "Hi Brianna."  
  
Smiling lightly the Lycanthropoid answered her. "Hey sis."  
  
"Something wrong? You seem out of it. I mean, ever since you, mom, Genn and Séance got back from Jade, you've been so depressed. What's wrong?"  
  
Brianna sighed. "Nothing I really want to talk about. It's something that I have to deal with on my own."  
  
Gina squeezed Brianna's shoulder. "Brianna, you don't need to take that attitude, Britanny, myself, Genn, Séance, Strype and Ryan are here to help you as well." Sighing the eldest Digger girl walked back into the house, but not before speaking one last time. "Brianna, if you need to talk to someone, I'm available."  
  
Brianna frowned. "But, you're always working on your inventions or studying your research."  
  
Gina shook her head. "I can always drop it if you need to talk. If you really need someone to talk to, there's always Genn and Dao."  
  
"Thanks, I'll consider it."  
  
Gina nodded and walked back into the house.  
  
Brianna just shook her head. 'There's no way that you could understand sis, there's just no way.'  
  
Preview of next chapter: "Sometimes life is just crazy. Heh, it's me Britanny Diggers. On the next chapter of Grave's New Life, something will happen. What it is, I don't know. You'll have to find out for yourself."  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
[1] I have to thank Proteus for that explanation.  
  
[2] Recently I found out that Ki and Chi are technically the same thing. However, I can't help but think of them as separate, since that was the first definition that I received. Ki, by my definition, is internal or "soul" physical energy. While Chi is, by my definition, external physical energy. Basically, Chi is drawing upon the power of the Earth and the energy of Nature. Although Chi in Gold Digger is an application of the Ethereal Stream. While Ki in Ranma 1/2 is "soul" energy.  
  
[3] That nightmare that Grave had was because she is basically all of Brianna's doubts, fears, dreams, desires, ECT. given physical form. Now while I know that Grave Digger and Brianna Diggers are the same person, I can't help but think of them as two separate people.  
  
[4] Someone once complained to me that Ranma was acting too OOC for his character pertaining to how he interacted with Grave. My answer is this, he's not acting too OOC, though he may just be a bit OOC. Ahem! Anyway, Ranma hasn't met Akane, and she hasn't punished him for being "perverted", and since Grave isn't punishing Ranma for accidental things and is being nice to him, Ranma is being a bit more honest about things, especially feelings. Which is doubly true as Genma and other people aren't there to make fun of him for showing emotional or physical weakness.  
  
[5] In case you readers are wondering, I try and have a new fic, a new chapter to one of my existing fics, or a revised version of one of my fics out every two weeks. 


	8. 7

Grave's New Life

Part Seven

I own both Ranma 1/2 and Gold Digger so there! Hears a weird noise from behind. Turns and sees an army of lawyers armed with Beta-Tech. Eh heh, okay, I don't own Ranma 1/2 or Gold Digger. Those series belong to Rumiko Takahashi and Fred Perry respectively.

* * *

Ranma sighed as he was practicing outside in the morning, Grave had been over-tired and had stayed back in the tent, not that he really blamed her, since she had that nightmare last night.

Suddenly he stiffened and turned to see who was there. He blinked as he saw a short woman with brown hair done up in a braided ponytail that went halfway down her back, she was wearing a white warrior dress with green trim.

The woman smirked at him. "Well, well, I expected to see a Werecat, not a human."

Ranma shuddered at the word cat and eyed the woman, she didn't seem like much. Smirking the pigtailed martial artist looked at her. "Heh, no Werec-c-c-cats here, just me."

The woman shook her head. "Well, whatever." She then eyed the tent. "And what about that tent? Is someone in there?"

Ranma frowned at the woman. "No, now leave."

"I don't think so boy." Smirking victoriously at him she continued. "By your actions, I can surmise that the one we're looking for is in there."

Frowning, Ranma glared at her. "Just who are you? And what do you want?"

"What do I want? Well, there's supposed to be a short little Werecheetah around here, I don't suppose that you've seen her have you?" The woman's smirk grew to a full-blown grin as she saw the human's eyes widen a bit. "I thought so, she's in that tent huh?" Chucking the woman shook her head. "Oh, and for my name, it's G'Nolga."

"Listen lady, you ain't getting Grave, so just leave."

G'Nolga chuckled. "So, her name's Grave huh? And do you _honestly_ think that a pup like you can stop someone like me?"

Smirking arrogantly, the martial artist nodded. "Hell yeah!"

G'Nolga shook her head. "You've got confidence. I'll give you that, but you'll still lose."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." With that G'Nolga raced toward the martial artist at a speed that was hard for him to comprehend. Ranma took a defensive stance, only to get smashed in the ribs and back into and through a tree.

Groaning a bit, Ranma rolled to his feet. G'Nolga raised an eyebrow and smirked. "Well, this will be fun, most people wouldn't be able to stand after even one of my hits."

Ranma clutched his chest, that felt just like when that Troll hit him a little while ago, and he could tell that some of his ribs were busted, just from the fact that it felt like he was breathing hot metal into his lungs.

Chuckling, the Dwarven Weaponsmaster ran at Ranma again, this time he was a bit more prepared for her speed, and even though he couldn't really see her, he knew just what to expect. Just as the punch was about to connect to his ribs, Ranma ducked and lashed out with a leg kick that hit G'Nolga in the diaphragm, which knocked her back. However, G'Nolga wasn't even phased by the blow.

"Is that it boy? That's the best you can really do against me?"

Ranma gulped and winced as the pain in his chest got to him again. 'Ugh, damn, she's strong, tough and fast.' Clenching his left fist, Ranma started concentrating Ki into it. 'I just hope this works.'

G'Nolga just walked up to the boy, she had to admit, he had a lot of potential, if he was able to counter her version of the Leep Palm attack. G'Nolga wasn't foolish enough to drop her defenses completely, but she did have them relaxed, the poor kid looked like he was about to pass out from just one hit.

'Alright, try this!' As soon as G'Nolga got close enough, Ranma ran forward a bit and launched a fierce left punch. "STAR LIGHT EXPLOSION!"

G'Nolga blocked the punch, but was surprised that she was pushed back by the force alone. She frowned when she felt her skin burn a bit, it was nothing serious, as she had taken worse before, but she was still surprised that the kid could do that.

Sliding back several feet G'Nolga shook her arm a bit and smirked viciously. "Heh, I was going to go easy on you human, and only hurt you enough to knock you out, now, now I'm just going to hurt you."

G'Nolga then got serious and charged again with a serious expression on her face. Ranma got into a defensive stance and waited for her attack. His eyes widened when he felt her behind him. The next thing Ranma knew was pain as G'Nolga used her full strength and kicked him in the back of the knees, causing him to lurch forward, an elbow to the back of the neck, which damn near broke his spine, as well as several punches and kicks up and down his exposed back and on his damaged ribs.

Ranma fell to his hands and knees and then just flopped forward. G'Nolga was about to hit him one more time, just for meanness sake when a lightning bolt hit her on the back.

She chuckled a bit and turned to see the one she was supposed to get standing there with a look of shock on her face. "What? Surprised that I didn't get hurt by your spell little girl? You should know that a Dwarf like myself is highly resistant to magic." It was the reason that she could go toe-to-toe with Arch-Mages and not have to worry too much.

Grave stepped back in shock, the fact that her magic didn't work, as well as the fact that she recognized just _who_ was in front of her made her really scared. "Y, you're the one who killed that mage aren't you?"

G'Nolga blinked and shrugged. "Oh? You mean that old Werecat mage? Yeah, I killed him, so what?"

Grave took another step backwards and then looked at Ranma. "What do you want?"

"Just you, the human behind me means nothing to me, though he's got some talent." G'Nolga smirked. "I went easy on him, relatively, he'll live, provided he gets to a healer in time."

Grave couldn't stand it and teleported herself right next to Ranma's side. G'Nolga blinked and turned around. She then smirked as a thought came to her. 'I have the perfect tool to make her work for us.' Looking up to a tree she made a waving motion. "Rook! Get down here."

Grave looked up, only to lurch forward into unconsciousness as something hit her on the back of the neck.

"Took you long enough. I'm surprised G'Nolga, you should've been able to handle that human in one punch."

G'Nolga shrugged. "He surprised me is all Rook." She then pointed to the human. "Bring him with us, have your Trolls bring all his stuff with as well."

Rook would've raised an eyebrow, but being an Undead Knight, he couldn't do that. "Just what do you mean?"

G'Nolga chuckled. "It's _very_ simple my Undead ally, we can get that Werecat to work for us by using the boy as a bargaining chip. We just need to use her to keep the Edge Guard off of us."

Rook chuckled. "That does sound like a plan." Making some motions to his Trolls that were with him, he ordered them to pick up everything that may belong to the human and to then head back to base.

Tirant nodded as he saw G'Nolga come in with an unconscious Werecheetah over her shoulder. "Hmm, interesting, stand her up for a moment G'Nolga."

G'Nolga rolled her eyes and shifted the Lycanthropoid so that she was standing up.

Tirant smirked. "Hmm, interesting, if I did not have Array, I would find this girl attractive." He then blinked as Rook drug a human on the floor and entered the room. "Something I should know?"

G'Nolga smirked. "I feel as if this boy is the key to controlling this little Werecheetah."

Tirant rolled his eyes, leave it to someone who didn't have any emotional attachments to anyone to manipulate someone who did.

(----)

Grave groaned a bit as she woke up. Blinking her eyes a bit, she looked around and spotted Ranma, hurt badly and bound to a chair in the center of the room. Teleporting over to him, she tried to touch him, but only succeeded in having her hand go through him. Her eyes widened as she looked around. "How the? Who's there?! Where's Ranma?!"

The only door in the room opened and a bald man, wearing brown robes walked into the room. "To answer your questions in order, a simple magical illusion my dear, my name is Tirant, and your friend is tied up to a chair like you saw, however, I did manage to convince G'Nolga to allow me to heal him up for you."

Grave frowned and twitched at hearing that name. "You're working with that bitch?!"

Tirant nodded and Grave, scared, angry, sad and confused, threw a few bolts of lightning, all of which hit Tirant, but none of them did any harm.

Grave's eyes widened. "What the?"

Tirant chuckled. "I conduct lightning my dear, so electricity has no effect on me." He then smirked at her. "And even if you did hurt me, your friend would be dead, you see, some of my associates are watching us right now and if anything should happen to me, well, your friend will be dead faster than your kind can run. Even if you teleport in, you'll not be able to save him."

Grave gulped, they had her right where they wanted her. By threatening to kill her only friend, they could control her, and she and they knew it.

Grave looked down at the ground and sighed. "Fine, what do you want? I'll do anything, just don't hurt him, please?"

Tirant smirked, though he felt a bit bad for doing this to her, but, oh well, things like this happened in the Super Villain business. "Simple my dear, soon my associates and myself may have to deal with the Northern Edge Guard, I believe you know some of them, anyway, they may come snooping around here where they don't belong and I can't have that. So, I need you to hold them off so that our plans can go off without a hitch."

"What plan?"

Tirant smirked. "I'll tell you, only because it never hurts for you to know, and you won't tell anyone, because if you do, your friend is dead. Anyway, if everything goes as planned, G'Nolga will retain her title as Armsmaster and my associates and I will have complete control of Jade, the Retreat, the Undead Realm and Earth."

Grave mentally rolled her eyes, why was it that bad guys _always_ thought that they could take over the world? That was the main reason that they were stopped, because no one would allow them to do so.

(----)

Hanza frowned as she looked at the beaten up and unconscious boy tied to the chair, well, bound by manacles that were enchanted to hold a Dragon's strength. "So, why the hell do we need to keep this loser alive?"

Array, her swashbuckler version, rolled her eyes as she walked past the permanent man-turned-woman. "Because this loser, as you call him, is the key to controlling the one facet that can keep those nosy Edge Guard out of our hair."

"What's the big deal about one dinky Werecat mage?"

Array shrugged. "Possibly the fact that she was able to take on three of the Realm's most powerful magic users for a brief period of time? Or maybe the fact that she's good enough that the Edge Guard is completely useless against her? Remember, she does have magic, and you know what magic does to Werefolk."

Hanza grumbled. "Yeah, yeah." She then smirked. "So this loser was taken out in only a few moments of actual combat?"

"Well, yes, but remember, G'Nolga was using her full strength and speed against him, with the exception of Julia and the other Weaponsmasters, there's not many people that can withstand her prowess when fighting."

"Yeah, well, he's still a loser."

Array shrugged her shoulders. "He lasted longer against G'Nolga than you did against Julia when you first fought, considering that you had help from two others and he didn't, at least during the fight, I'd say that he's better than you."

Hanza grumbled and walked off. Array chuckled and walked up to Ranma, looking at his body, she winced. "I'm sorry kid, when this is over, you and your girlfriend can go free, we won't need to hold you then."

Sighing the pink haired multiple personality disorder, who could make the different personalities come to life decided that she'd get a better healer for the kid, he didn't need to die from any injuries.

(----)

Rook looked at G'Nolga. "So, you've made it darn near impossible for Julia to reenter the Tournament. Why?"

G'Nolga smirked. "She may be the best fighter around, besides me, but that's only in a one-on-one fight, not many, many fights in a row, like what the Tournament is going to be. Besides, with the show that Tirant and I put on, everyone thinks that Julia threw away her honor for only a small bag of gold."

Rook chuckled. "Yes, I see. So, why aren't you at the Tournament?"

G'Nolga rolled her eyes. "Fool, I only have to be there for a short while until the real tournament begins, right now we're just narrowing the competition until we get to the ones who will become the Weaponsmasters for this generation. They then take on the ones from the previous generation and the winner, if one of them prevails, gets to face me, the Armsmaster to see who's the best of all."

Rook nodded. "I see." He then smirked as best he could, considering that he didn't have any lips and wore only a facemask. "By the way, how's your arm?"

G'Nolga frowned. "I can't believe that punk actually managed to crack the bone in my arm with that attack of his." She then smirked. "He's got potential, a lot of it. If he lives for more than four years more, I wonder how far he'll be able to go."

Rook hummed. "Perhaps he'll be able to win the next Tournament of Arms if he can improve enough."

"That's doubtful, it took Julia until she was almost forty to win the tournament."

Rook shrugged. "Oh well." Though he did rub his chin a bit. 'But that style used, it seemed familiar, some of the stances involved, nah, what are the chances that he actually took time to train someone else huh?'

G'Nolga frowned a bit; she didn't feel anything from the Ethereal stream when his hand was glowing. 'So how did that pup do something like that? He wasn't that strong, but somehow he managed to push me back with the force of that, what did he call it again? Ah yes, Star Light Explosion. Just what was that attack?'

G'Nolga shook her head, she'd find out _after_ the Tournament was over and she remained Armsmaster, after all, she had no doubt that Julia would remain out of the Tournament this time.

* * *

Preview of the next chapter: "Well, well, I can't really say what's going to happen next. I don't really know, and I'm the person who invented the Peebo! In case you don't know, I'm Brianna Diggers. Anyway, what happens next is top-secret. Only clue I have is the fact that mom had to back to her old teacher to learn some secret move."

1 Okay, I didn't feel like putting a number between the bars in the chapter anymore, so I'm doing it differently.

2 Star Light Explosion - If you've ever seen the Anime "Knights of the Zodiac" and "Fatal Fury" this will make a bit more sense. Anyway, the technique works like this, charge energy into your fist like the Burn Knuckle or the Pegasus Meteor Punch and then launch forward, like the Burn Knuckle, except that when the punch connects, it explodes in a blast of energy, like the Meteor Punch, that amplifies the Ki and Kinetic energy that had been gathered into an incredibly powerful attack.

3 I just know someone is going to complain about Ranma being a better fighter than that so let me explain a bit, G'Nolga was hitting at full, or darn near close to it, strength and speed. Now, it really doesn't matter who she's facing, that's enough to put a serious hurt on anyone really. Even though Julia can withstand G'Nolga's full strength, speed, endurance, and skill, she's still pretty banged up after their fights are over. What can I say? Ranma lost and rather badly I might add. If you must know, G'Nolga's skilled enough to beat Cologne or Happosai, though it would be _very_ close, and don't forget how fast Ranma lost his first fights with those two old farts.

Even though G'Nolga's skilled enough to beat Happosai or Cologne in a one-on-one fight, those two are older, wilier, sneakier and have a lot of tricks up their sleeves. But, like I said before, it would be _very_ close.

4 Oh, for those of you wondering why Ranma didn't access his partial controlled Neko-ken, it's simple, not enough time and he was taken out fairly quickly.

5 One more thing, this is about the time when Cologne showed up in the Manga. That was just a little note to pass on.


	9. 8

Grave's New Life

Chapter Eight

Disclaimer: Ranma 1/2 belongs to Rumiko Takahashi-sama. Gold Digger belongs to High Lord Fred Perry.

Note: For this chapter to make any real sense, it must be understood that it happens during chapters five through seven.

* * *

Genma Saotome sat down on a stool in a bar. He was now back in Japan, however, he was in Hiroshima, not Tokyo, as he pondered what to do now. 'I can't just pop up on my wife and tell her that I lost our son now can I?' He frowned and looked at his drink. He may have been gluttonous and greedy, but he still had his priorities straight, at least if they were long-term priorities and not short term.

"You okay mac?" The bartender asked him. He was about five-foot-nine, grayish colored hair, a short beard, a solid build, which could mostly be attributed to working out and having to occasionally step in to stop a brawl, the scars on his arms and chest could account to that; and brown eyes. He was wearing a blue button shirt and jeans as he wiped a glass.

Genma looked at him and shrugged. "A little. Got some problems to work out."

"Oh?"

"It doesn't concern you though."

The bartender nodded and went to go and take an order for some sake.

Genma sighed and reached into his Gi, pulled out a postcard and looked at it. After Jusenkyo, the bald martial artist had thought to send the postcard to Soun and let him know that he and Ranma were coming, but it seemed that fate decided to make that impossible.

Genma smirked. 'Heh, maybe it's not impossible just yet.' He wasn't about to go to his wife and let her know about what happened to Ranma, but he could still go to his friend's house and tell him about it. 'After all, the Master,' Genma unconsciously shivered, 'had lots of stuff like that scroll I used. Perhaps there may be something that can help us find out just where the boy is.'

Shaking his head he signaled for the bartender to give him a pen and Genma began to write down a message to his friend.

A few days later Soun Tendo, a thin man who was a little over six feet tall, he had long black hair, a mustache, and was wearing a black Gi, went to get the mail. "Let's see, bills, bills, bills, manga? Must be Nabiki's. Bills, postcard from old friend, bills, bills, poems by Shakespeare? Must be for Akane. Bills, bills, Esocentric Medical Practices? Hmm, must be Kasumi's." Soun then blinked. "Postcard from old friend?"

Quickly digging through the mail to find the postcard, Soun could barely hold down his excitement. Finally the houses would be joined. When he found it, he read it to himself.

_There's been a complication. Will explain when I arrive. Be prepared to dig through you-know-who's stuff._

_Saotome_

Soun blinked and stared wide-eyed at the postcard. 'It must be serious if Saotome needs to look through the Master's,' Soun shivered unconsciously, 'stuff.' Shaking his head, Soun went into the house to tell Kasumi that an old friend would be arriving soon.

(----)

People in Nerima were used to interesting sights, actually, most of the people in Japan were used to interesting sights, considering everything that happened from time-to-time. A Panda walking down the street on its hind legs in the rain while carrying a backpack counted as interesting.

Most of the people stopped and blinked; then ignored it as the endangered species paid them no heed and continued on its merry way.

Genma was a bit surprised that people were taking his appearance so calmly; he knew that if he hadn't dealt with Happosai all those years ago that he might be a bit freaked out right now. 'Did things really change so much in the last ten years?'

Shaking his head, the beast lumbered his way toward the Tendo Dojo.

(----)

Nabiki Tendo, a brown-haired girl with a keen intellect, stared at her father. "An old friend of yours is coming to visit?" Suddenly, the middle Tendo had an inexplicable feeling of doom running down her spine.

Soun nodded. "Yes. The postcard said that he would arrive shortly." Well, it really didn't say that, but Soun figured that his friend would arrive shortly.

Akane Tendo, a five-foot-six bluish-black haired girl, frowned and looked at him. "So you called me away from practice just for an announcement that your friend was coming?"

Soun nodded. "It's best that you're prepared for his arrival instead of surprised."

Akane blinked, that was true. "Say, if that's true, then what about Kasumi? Why isn't she here?"

"I already told her about what was going to happen. And, she's in her room studying."

Akane and Nabiki both nodded. Nine months ago Kasumi went to a convention of some sort, and when she came back, she was changed. Not changed as in a bad way, or in a dramatic way, but she was changed enough that she was doing things differently now. The biggest change happened three months ago when she started to study for medical school. Both sisters were behind her one hundred percent.

Suddenly, there was a knocking on the door and Soun smiled. "Why, I think that's him now." Walking towards the door, Soun called out. "I'm coming, I'm coming."

Nabiki sighed and got up. "Might as well see what the fuss is about."

Akane nodded, got up and followed her sister. The two walked quickly and quietly, not that either of them had anything to really say, to the door. When they got there, they were a bit surprised. "A Panda?" The two cried out at once.

Soun stared wide-eyed at the scene.

The Panda seemed to sigh and looked at them. "Growlf!" Producing a sign out of, seemingly, nowhere, the beast wrote on it. Hi, I need hot water. Flip! It'll make more sense when I get some. Flip! Please don't be afraid.

Nabiki, Akane and Soun nodded slowly. Akane shook her head and went to get the hot water. It was an understood rule in Tokyo, when weird things come into the home, get what they want, then ask questions, it was always easier to get information from someone or something that got what it wanted first, as long as it wasn't important.

Nabiki was more amazed that the Panda was able to write, as well as the fact that it was able to write on three sides of a two-sided board, especially since only one side of the board could be used as the other side had a stick in the middle of it.

Shaking her head, the middle Tendo looked at her father. "Some friend you have there daddy. I didn't know you knew a Panda." She then smirked. "What's next? You knowing a guy that has lips that can stretch to eat large amounts of food? A Gnome? Oh wait! The best one yet, a flying Minotaur."

The Nabiki of two years later could tell her younger self that her father only knew two of those three before she was born.

"Growlf!" Just get me hot water and I'll explain.

At that moment, Akane came back into the room. "It's not hot, but rather warm, I hope it's okay." Normally, when weird situations popped up, she'd react a bit differently from this, but the current situation, a Panda that could write and stand on two legs, was a wee bit abnormal.

The Panda nodded and doused himself with the warm water, instantly; a bald, overweight man took his place. "Soun, it's me, Genma!"

The bald martial artist blinked as Soun fainted. "I didn't think he'd take it that badly."

The two Tendos blinked a few times.

"Akane?"

"Yeah Nabiki?"

"If this is a dream, I want you to pinch me."

Akane looked at her and shrugged, reaching a hand up, she pinched her sister's cheek and pulled on it.

"Ow. Okay, I guess I'm not dreaming then."

Genma sighed. "It's a long story."

(----)

A while later, Soun, who had regained consciousness, Akane, Nabiki, Kasumi, who had been called down for an important announcement, and Genma were sitting at the table.

Soun shook his head as he heard how his friend had been forced to change with a small application of cold water. "My friend, I feel for you, what horrors you and your son had to go through for the name of the Art."

Nabiki shook her head. "Speaking of that, where is your son?" Something just didn't smell right about all this.

Genma winced. "It's not something I like talking about... But you see, shortly after my son and I got cursed we ended up at this village of Amazon women."

Akane rolled her eyes. "Amazon women?" Though she had to admit, if changing into a Panda was possible, Amazons might be as well, though she doubted it.

Kasumi blinked. "That's... Interesting." Shaking her head, she looked at Genma. "So what happened next?"

"Well, when we got there, my son, who was in cursed form at the time, was so hungry that when he spotted a buffet on the table, he couldn't help it and went and started to devour large quantities of food."

Genma shook his head. "Alas, while I did not speak nor read any Chinese, I could tell that the food was there for a reason, so I did not partake of such a glorious meal."

Soun blinked a few times, his friend _NOT_ partaking in a free meal? 'He must've been sick or something.'

Kasumi pursed her lips a bit, with the way that Genma looked; it didn't look like he would resist free food.

Nabiki had similar thoughts.

Akane shook her head and rolled her eyes. 'Leave it to a boy to do something so stupid.'

"Anyway, shortly after Ranma got done eating the majority of the food, the winner of the tournament that was going on nearby challenged him to a match for the insult that he accidentally gave her." Genma sighed and shook his head. "While the girl was good, she was no match for my son, who had gone under the most extreme training available to become the best in his generation, and was quickly defeated."

Soun shook his head as tears came to his eyes. "My friend, your son must be incredible to be able to win a fight so easily."

Akane snorted. "I bet that the girl was so tired that she couldn't put up much of a fight."

Nabiki and Kasumi both shrugged, they couldn't form an opinion one way or another.

"So what happened next?"

Genma sighed. "Apparently the girl was a sore loser and used an old rule in her village and gave Ranma what the Amazons call 'The Kiss of Death'."

Kasumi blinked. "Kiss of Death? Sounds terrible."

Genma nodded. "It was, according to the guide, the kiss that the girl gave my son required her to hunt him down to the ends of the Earth and kill him." Genma then sighed. "The reason that I'm here and not my son is very simple." Looking at Soun, he continued. "Several days later I attempted to use a scroll from 'you-know-who', I was prepared to send my son forward and arrive here."

Soun's eyes widened. "You mean to tell me that something went wrong?"

Genma nodded and sighed. "Yes. I started chanting and was had a destination in mind, namely here, when I was startled out of the chant by the girl who tried to kill Ranma." Sighing again, for who knows how many times, Genma continued. "I was so concentrated on the spell that with her war cry, I was startled out of the trance and lost the destination in mind as I finished the spell, so now Ranma can be _ANYWHERE!_ And... I need some help to find him again."

Soun shivered. "You don't want me to look through 'you-know-who's' stuff in the attic do you?"

Genma narrowed his eyes and nodded. "There is no other way Soun."

Akane frowned. "What are you two talking about?"

The youngest Tendo didn't get an answer as the two Masters of Anything Goes left in a hurry.

Nabiki sighed and rolled her eyes. "Might as well help them find what they can Akane."

"What for?"

The middle Tendo smirked. "You have to admit, Mr. Saotome's arrival was the most interesting thing that has happened in the last three months around here."

Kasumi giggled. "Well yes it is, after all, we haven't had a shape shifter in town since those traveling Americans came through, what did they call themselves again?"

"Shifters."

The eldest Tendo nodded. "Ah, right. Well, those Shifters came through and had to take care of that Vlad person who was sticking around here for some reason."

Akane smirked as the three went upstairs. "I'm still amazed that they trusted us with that information."

Nabiki shrugged. "Who knows?" 'Though it probably has to do with the fact that we know that Oni from Tomobika.'

The three Tendos just went upstairs to see if they could help the two fathers out in their quest.

Meanwhile on Jade, Ranma cracked an eye open and looked around. 'Damn, what happened?' He sat up and took a look around. 'Stone walls, strong door, no windows.' Wincing a bit he wondered what he had done to deserve to get thrown into jail.

Suddenly a thought came to him and he checked himself over. "No injuries?" He asked himself in wonder. "But how?

Suddenly the door opened and Ranma looked up. The figure in front of him was wearing full body armor that was colored blue; he was rather big and looked to be tough, in fact the only thing Ranma could see besides the armor was some white eyes behind the faceplate.

Not in a mood to deal with mysterious figures, he glared at the person in front of him. "Alright, just who are you?"

"Heh heh, you can call me Rook."

"Alright Rookie, why the hell am I in jail? I ain't done nothing wrong."

"My name is Rook, not Rookie. As for your injuries, well, you've been out for a few days now and a healer came in and fixed you right up. We saw no reason to keep you shackled to a chair, so we tossed you into this cell." Seeing the boy get a look in his eyes, Rook warned him. "Don't try to break out, first off, the rock's enchanted to levels beyond what you can actually damage boy; besides, if you cause too much problems, it will be very bad for your Werecheetah friend."

Ranma's eyes widened and his face paled. "What did you do to Grave?!"

Rook mentally chuckled; the boy had little control of his emotions and was probably very easily manipulated. "Nothing yet." Rook made a point to emphasize 'yet'. "As long as you cooperate, nothing will happen to her."

Ranma glared but sat down, they could threaten him all they wanted, but Grave was another matter. "Fine." He growled out. "What do you want?"

"I was merely curious as to what style that you used, as well as your teacher."

"My pops taught me." Ranma's eye twitched. "Why? Did that fool make a promise to you and now you're here to collect on it?"

Rook shrugged. "Who's your father?"

"Genma Saotome, why?"

Rook shook his head. "Nothing, don't worry about it." 'Seems I was right, 'He' didn't train anyone else in all his years of life.' With that, Rook turned around and left.

Ranma's eyes widened and he jumped up and ran towards the door, only to have it close on his face, knocking him back. Growling a bit, the pigtailed martial artist got up and punched the wall, only to find that his punch had no effect. "Dammit!" Narrowing his eyes he glared at the door. 'Just you wait Grave. I'll find a way out and save you.'

* * *

Preview of next chapter: "Damn! What just happened really sucked you know. Let's just see them try and keep me in that cell in the next chapter."

1 Kind of slow on the updates, I know. Think of this as a filler chapter to tide you over a bit.

2 HA! I bet no one saw that one, Kasumi studying for medical school, coming now did they? First off, I'm going to say this, NOTHING will be exactly as it was for Ranma 1/2, at least what most people think is that series. I will say that you'll find the changes very interesting, be they large or small. I'm not going to list the changes, but if you pay close enough attention, you'll see that there are many changes throughout the whole fic for both series.

3 Reference to the webcomic "Shifters". It's a cool webcomic so check it out. You can find it at

4 Ranma's not stupid. As to why he didn't try to get out when Rook was there is simple, Rook threatened Grave, and since Ranma didn't know where she was, he sat down and behaved while Rook was there, though he wanted to get out and find Grave.


	10. 9

Grave's New Life

Chapter Nine

Disclaimer: HULK SMASH STUPID DEMON LAWYERS!!! WHAM! Sorry, always wanted to say that. Anyway, I own neither Ranma 1/2 nor Gold Digger. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sama and High Lord Fred Perry respectively.

* * *

Grave Digger sighed sadly as she sat in her room. There wasn't much there, just a bed and a window. Oh sure, she could escape any time she wanted to, but then she'd leave Ranma to whatever those jerks wanted to do to him. Thankfully, though she felt a bit guilty at this, the creeps had kept her busy enough that her mind wasn't on Ranma very much.

She looked up as a spell caster, her teacher in the magical arts, walked in. "What do you want?"

The spell caster, Array, raised an eyebrow. "You seem to not have your heart into the lessons that I'm giving you."

Grave frowned and shrugged. "Yeah? So?"

Array shook her head. Truthfully, the only reason why she was teaching the Lycanthropoid was because she needed to know how to use her abilities better; which would definitely come in handy if they had to face the Northern Edge Guard, which was becoming more and more likely. "You've only been here for a couple of days now."

Grave blinked. "Oh? Didn't notice the time." She muttered the last part out since she'd rather be with Ranma out and traveling about.

Array rolled her eyes, lifted her left hand and motioned for Grave to follow her.

Grave Digger sighed, figuring that she had to go through another session of training, and followed the spell caster.

As they walked down the halls, Grave noticed that they weren't heading toward their usual place for training. "Um, what's going on?" She hated not knowing what was going on.

Array didn't answer, which made Grave frown a bit. The pink-haired woman led the Lycanthropoid to a door and opened it. "Go inside, there's someone in there who wants to see you."

Grave blinked and narrowed her eyes, but still went inside. As soon as she was in, Array closed the door. Looking around, Grave's eyes widened as she saw someone sleeping on a small bed. "RANMA!"

The yell caused the pigtailed martial artist to wake with a start. Yawning a bit, he stretched. "Uh, wha?" Only to find himself the recipient of a flying crying hug. His eyes widened for just a moment and he froze. Only to look down a bit and see a short girl with spotted hair. "G, Grave? Is that you?"

The little Lycanthropoid nodded into his chest and Ranma wrapped his arms around her. "I'm sorry Grave. I couldn't protect you."

Grave just shook her head into his chest and tilted her head to the side a bit. "It's not your fault. You tried to protect me, you didn't know that she was that good."

Ranma frowned. "But still..."

Grave didn't let him finish and found a very effective way to quiet him, by kissing him on the lips.

Ranma's eyes widened for a second and his body tensed up a little, before relaxing and leaning back. Grave broke the kiss, snuggled her body against his, leaned her head against his chest and purred. Closing her eyes, she nuzzled her cheek against his chest and smiled a bit. 'I haven't felt like this since that first day waking up with him.'

Meanwhile Ranma's eyes widened and his body went stiff. 'C, C, C, CAT!!' He looked back and forth wildly trying to find the demonic feline threat from hell. Unconsciously, even though he was scared stupid, he was running his hands up and down Grave's back. He couldn't see one, but he knew that there was one in the room.

Grave just smiled more, hugged him tighter and nuzzled her face against his chest. Her tail started wagging behind her ever so slowly.

Elsewhere Tirant, the bald leader of the group, looked at Array with a raised eyebrow. "Are you sure that it was a good idea to leave them alone?"

Array nodded. "Of course. Don't forget that on the outside of the enchanted rock is unenchanted metal. Of course, you do know that because of the unenchanted metal, she can't use her aura abilities right?"

Tirant nodded. "A peculiar weakness aura magic has. One would think that it was almost completely useless."

"True. But if it was, do you think G'Nolga would worry about one Arch Aura-Mage?"

"Point. Still, elemental magic would be better I think."

A new voice spoke up. "You would think so, except for the fact that elemental magic has its own weaknesses."

Both Tirant and Array looked up to see Hanza standing there. Tirant nodded. "I know that Hanza. So, what did you come here for?"

Hanza shrugged. "Nothing much. It's just that I got word that Julia Diggers went to go see her old teacher again, and that her husband and two daughters are with her."

Tirant frowned and scratched his chin. "Hmm, this does complicate matters if Julia tries to get back into the Tournament of Arms."

Hanza rolled her eyes. "G'Nolga already took care of it, remember?"

Tirant nodded. "I know, but her husband could complicate matters."

Hanza smirked. "Big deal. Julia has no honor on Jade anymore. We shouldn't have to worry about her."

Array held up a finger. "As I told you before Hanza, it's not Julia that we have to worry about, but rather the Northern Edge Guard."

"Hmm, yeah, so what are we going to do about them?"

"Nothing for right now. We need to find a way to incapacitate them, while being able to use them after the Tournament of Arms is over."

Hanza frowned. "That's too long for me."

Array smirked. "Let me guess. You want to get your "revenge" upon Sheila of the Edge Guard right?"

Hanza glared at the multi-personal woman. "Of course! After all, it IS her fault that I was changed." Hanza clenched her fist. "I swear I'm going to make her pay for what she did to me."

Tirant and Array rolled their eyes at the man-turned-woman's antics. Tirant shook his head. "If the Northern Edge Guard come snooping around here, I'll let you take on Sheila. Alright?"

Hanza nodded and smirked. Turning around, she started mumbling to herself all that she would do to the little Jagwere when they met again.

Tirant shook his head. "Why do we have to work with such idiots?"

"It's either them or the Great Stooges Gang."

"Good point."

Grave frowned and quit purring, she felt Ranma tense up, but she couldn't figure out why. Looking up, she saw him looking all over the room, as if trying to find something that was hidden. "Ranma?"

Ranma relaxed a bit and calmed down as the purring stopped. "Yeah Grave?"

Grave Digger frowned curiously. "Why were you so tense a moment ago?"

Ranma shivered. "I heard a c, c, c, c, c, feline purring. Remember what I told you about the N, n, n, Neko-ken?"

Grave nodded. Suddenly it became clear to her. "You're afraid of cats aren't you?"

Ranma nodded, feeling a bit ashamed for admitting to a weakness like that.

Grave sighed. "Don't worry, that cat won't bother you anymore." Truthfully, she didn't know why he could hang around her if he was so afraid of cats in the first place. 'Probably has to do with the fact that I don't have any facial features of a cat.'

Ranma blinked. "You sure?"

Grave nodded, closed her eyes and leaned her head forward to rest on the crook of his neck. "Ranma?"

"Yeah Grave?"

"Just hold me."

The pigtailed martial artist nodded and hugged her to him.

Grave sighed happily as Ranma held her. She didn't know if he loved her, but right now, she didn't care. The feelings that she was receiving by just thinking about him made her feel warm, secure and loved. But when she was able to touch him, much less hug him, she realized how deep her feelings ran for him.

There was one thing that Grave Digger knew... She knew that she would do _ANYTHING_ to keep Ranma safe and happy, even if she had to work for the bad guys.

Ranma for his part was a bit confused. 'What? What is this feeling?' He couldn't understand it, everytime he felt as if someone or something was going to hurt Grave Digger, there was a pain in his chest that he couldn't describe. Yet at the same time, seeing her happy and alive created a warm feeling in his chest that he didn't know what to do about.

Sheila frowned as she looked at the reports. "Nothing! How can there be NO sightings of her?!" She and Gar were sitting in the Brass Bone Inn, one of the many food places in Seer's Hamlet.

Gar sighed. "Sorry sis."

The smaller Jagwere pouted. "This isn't really fair!"

Gar shook his head. "Sheila, sis, I don't know why you're so gung-ho on finding Grave Digger. There haven't been reports of anything out there. So, just why are you so bent out of shape trying to find her?"

Sheila sighed. "You really want to know?" Seeing Gar nod, she folded her arms on the table, rested her head on them and then spoke. "Mostly to help Brianna out. I still feel bad about what happened."

Gar raised an eyebrow. "You still do?" 'Gee, Brianna blames herself over Gaja's death and Sheila blames herself for the start of that whole debacle.'

"Yeah. I do." Sheila had another reason why she wanted to find Grave Digger. She wasn't going to tell Gar why, he might think that she was a little crazy.

Gar just shook his head, even though he knew that Sheila couldn't see it. "Don't worry about it. No one blames you for what happened."

"Whoo Hoo! Look at the flubber fly!"

G'Nolga blinked at that and went into the room that she was passing by. "Rook? What are you looking at?" The Undead Knight was looking into a crystal ball and laughing at something he saw on there.

Chuckling, Rook turned to her. "Oh, just something I picked up from the Earth Realm. I used a modified viewing spell to look in on what the people there call a "T.V. program" and came across this show called the "Simpsons". It's rather funny, but stupid."

G'Nolga nodded and wondered about the sanity of some of the people she was working with. "Well, whatever, I'm going out to practice a little. Tell baldy if he asks about me."

"Sure, will do." With that, Rook turned back to his viewing crystal.

Outside of Ranma's cell, Hanza looked at it and frowned. 'Once I take care of that little Jagwere, I'm going to take care of that little Werecheetah. After all, she doesn't deserve happiness if I don't have any.'

Brianna sighed as her father got done telling her and Gina about how come their mother and G'Nolga had that bloody feud between them. "All because mom was always just a little bit better in fighting... G'Nolga didn't have to make it so personal, did she? What kind of idiot goes around swearing vengeance just because someone's a little bit better than them?"

Across the Multiverse, several people sneezed. One of which was a certain prince named after a vegetable. Another was a certain person who couldn't find his way out of a paper bag.

Theodore Diggers, a man in his fifties to sixties, with short gray hair, a goatee, and wearing a black mage suit shook his head. "Brianna, things like this happen. G'Nolga is an extremely good warrior and prides herself on being such a good fighter. For her, coming so close to winning, only to lose in the end is like a slap in the face."

Gina Diggers nodded. "I know. It's like me making an incredibly useful invention, only to find out that someone else created a better one."

Brianna nodded, sighed and sat down. Theo raised an eyebrow at this. "Brianna? Is there something you wish to tell us? Ever since you, Séance, Genn and Julia came back from Jade, you've been a bit depressed." True, they were on Jade at the moment, but he was talking about when Brianna and the others got back to Earth the first time.

"Oh nothing." However, Brianna's eyes weren't on her father's, but rather she was looking at the ground.

"You're lying. Brianna, you know I can look at your aura and tell if you're lying or not. So just tell me what's wrong. I know that it's bothering you, and I'd like to help you."

Brianna sighed; she silently cursed herself for trying to trick her dad. "Well, it's like this dad, sis. When Genn, Séance and I went for a vacation here on Jade, well...."

Brianna then went on to explain what happened. That she was there, not for a vacation, but to bring Raphiel back to life, which she succeeded in. However, certain effects that happened because of her quest weren't what she wanted.

Gina stared wide-eyed at her sister. "My god! Brianna! Why didn't you tell me?!"

Brianna looked at her and frowned a little. "You would've gotten upset that I didn't tell you the truth in the first place."

"You're damn right I'm upset! First you lie to everyone and make them think that you and Genn are going on vacation and nothing would go wrong, then you hide the fact that your 'Grave Digger' persona is running around free, and lastly..."

"Gina. That's enough."

The two sisters looked at Theo. "Dad?" They asked at the same time.

"Gina, the reason Brianna didn't tell you these things was because of what you are doing right now. She didn't want to make you, me, your mom, or anyone else worry about her."

Gina slumped a bit, her dad was right; she was making a really big deal out of this.

Theo shook his head and scratched his beard. 'So my youngest daughter's other half is running around freely huh? But... If she was causing problems, the Mage Council would be onto her already.' "I don't think that it's too big a problem."

Gina and Brianna looked at him, surprised. Before they could say anything, Theo lifted a hand up. "Listen to me girls, before you say anything." The two girls nodded and waited for their dad to say what he had to say. "First off, if Grave Digger was doing something terrible, the Council of Mages would be all over her and punishing her for doing wrong."

Brianna saw a small flaw in that. "What about Tanya? She's still running around doing who-knows-what?"

"True, but she's on Earth. Grave Digger is on Jade. And I don't think that she knows the Dimension Door spell." Theo stroked his beard a bit. "But, don't worry about it. If she was causing problems anywhere, you would be hearing about it. Don't you think?"

Brianna blinked. "You're right." The Lycanthropoid sighed and it seemed as if a HUGE weight was removed from her shoulders. "Thanks dad."

* * *

Preview of next chapter: "Well, it seems they found a way to keep you in here Ranma."

"Yeah, yeah. Laugh it up Grave. I'm still going to try and get us out of here."

"Well, we'll see. After all, things have to come to a head sooner or later."

"I prefer sooner to later. But that's just me."

"You know Ranma, we haven't told anyone about the next chapter yet."

"So? I don't really know what's going to happen myself."

"Buu go bang bang!"

"WRONG SERIES!!"

"Buu sorry."

1 I couldn't help it. I was watching some "Simpsons" episodes the other day, and I just couldn't help it and put a reference in here.

2 Ranma may or may not be falling in love with Grave Digger, though she said that she loves him. Anyway, Ranma's got strong feelings for the small Lycanthropoid and will do ANYTHING to ensure her safety.

3 DBZ references. Sorry about that, just thought it would be funny. No... Vegeta and Majin Buu will NOT be making an appearance. That was done just because I'm in a silly mood.


	11. 10

Grave's New Life

Chapter Ten

Disclaimer: I own everything here! Sees lawyers heading my way. FINAL ATTACK!!! Generates massive aura and makes the ground around myself break apart. Retreat! Runs away. I own everything that isn't owned by Rumiko Takahashi-sama and High Lord Fred Perry. Which means I do not own the characters of Ranma 1/2 or Gold Digger.

Grave sighed as she sat on the bench that Ranma had been laying on when she was allowed into his cell. Right now the pigtailed martial artist was working out a bit. "Ranma?"

"Yeah Grave?"

Grave shook her head and smiled. "Why are you working out right now?"

"Ta clear my head a bit. I always think better when I'm doing a kata, rather than sittin' down."

Grave nodded. As she watched Ranma work out, she thought about a few things that just came to mind. The first thing that came to her mind was her life, or rather, lack of it. Oh, she had memories alright, just that those memories were of Britanny and Gina's life before her. 'Yeah, I'm the one without a life, I keep forgetting that.' Sighing she shook her head. 'How can Brianna be happy and want to protect them? We're just a shadow of Britanny and Gina, so why does she keep insisting that she has a life of her own?'

Grave sighed and blinked when a hand was placed on her shoulder. Looking up, she smiled a bit at Ranma. "Is something wrong Ranma?"

"You okay Grave? You were looking depressed."

She smiled, albeit a bit meloncholy. "Just thinking a bit."

Ranma sat down next to her. "About what?" He was a bit curious.

Grave sighed and looked down. "About my past... Or rather, LACK of a past."

Ranma just blinked. Not getting what she was getting at.

"I'm just a stupid accident! I would never had come to be if it hadn't been for fate and a stupid curse!" She would've continued, but Ranma put a hand on her mouth.

"Grave? You listening?" The Lycanthropoid nodded and Ranma continued. "First off, you're no accident." Grave Digger looked at him, her eyes showing her confusion. Fortunately, Ranma was able to actually read that. "Sure, maybe you came to be because of something that was really weird. But, if you were an accident, everyone would try their hardest to get rid of you."

Grave moved his hand off of her mouth. "But everyone _IS_ trying to get rid of me. First there was Britanny, Gina and their father. Then it was Brianna, Sheila, Gar, Genn, those old mages and others."

"What about me?"

Grave blinked.

"Am I trying to get rid of you?"

"Well, no."

Ranma nodded and looked up a bit with a distant look in his eyes. "I had a few training accidents when I was younger. Most of them because of my no-good pops, but still; when I had them, I tried my hardest to get rid of the reason for those accidents. Even pops helped out sometimes." He sighed. "Even though pops was hard on me when we trained and did stuff that wasn't nice, he was still there for me. He never really tried to hurt me. Jus' some of his stuff didn't turn out good." He chuckled humorlessly. "Well, sometimes. There were times when I just wanted to kill him for some of the stuff he pulled."

Grave nodded. Wondering a bit what this had to do with her problem.

Ranma laughed a bit. "There was this one time, about a year ago, when pops decided ta go and get somethin' ta drink. Well, he showed up the next morning smelly, stinky, and covered in mollases, chocolate, tar and feathers."

Grave giggled at that imagery.

"Ha ha. Yeah, it was funny. What was even funnier was what he said next. 'No dad. I no wanna get up today. Those bullies in the third grade keep picking on me.'"

Grave was clutching her sides and kicking her legs up and down as she laughed hysterically. True, it wasn't all that funny, but, considering the images in her head at the moment, it turned out to be exceptionally funny.

Ranma chuckled as well. "Yeah. I nearly passed out from the laughing. After he sobered up a bit he said this. 'Boy! Don't just stand there. Help your old man out of these feathers!'" He then smirked. "Guess what I did?"

"What?"

"Threw him in a lake."

Grave giggled. "Thank you."

Ranma blinked. "For what? I jus' told ya somethin' funny because you looked down. When I get depressed that's what I do, think of something funny."

She smiled lightly. "Still, for what it's worth. Thank you." Feeling impish, she leaned in and quickly kissed him on the lips.

Ranma blinked a bit as Grave pulled her head away. "Ah, heh heh." He was blushing a bit, though he wasn't really sure why.

After a few moments of silence between the two, Ranma suddenly spoke up. "I wonder what's going on out of here?"

Grave rolled her eyes. "Nothing much. Just that those people holding us are making some big plans to take over Jade, Earth, someplace called the Retreat and someplace called the Undead Realm."

Ranma blinked a few times. "How'd you find this out?"

Grave smiled cattily. "Simple. That bald guy, who's name is Tirant, told me."

Ranma blinked. "He just told you?" He thought that the people keeping them around would be more tight-lipped about things like that.

Grave shrugged. "Apparently he doesn't think that we're a danger to his plan. All he told me was that he and his friends were planning to take over Jade, Earth, the Retreat and the Undead Realm. Whereever those last two places are."

Rook was chuckling like a maniac. "Heh heh heh. Get 'em! Maul 'em! Tear 'em apart!"

_"We will return to Sleeping Beauty after these messages."_

If Rook had lips, he would've frowned. "Shoot. It was just getting to the best part. Oh well. What else is on?" 1, 2

Ranma suddenly chuckled. Grave looked at him. "What?"

"Heh, the Retreat? Undead Realm? I've heard of the Retreat before, can't remember where, but I know I heard of it somewhere. But both sound rather funny. I mean, c'mon, the Retreat? It sounds like an order you give to someone in a fight when you can't win."

Grave blinked a bit. "You know, you're right."

"Undead? So they're living right?"

"Actually, they're living dead."

"They're still living though."

Grave thought about it for a moment. "I guess, in a way, they are."

"I wonder what the place is like."

Grave shrugged. "If grandpa's any indication, I don't want to go there."

Blinking, he looked at her, confused. "Grandpa?"

Grave winced. "Sorry. I mean Gina and Britanny's grandpa, not mine. Anyway, when those two were young, grandpa died."

Ranma shrugged. "People die all the time. Not that anyone WANTS to die, but they do all the time."

Grave nodded. "Well, grandpa was a really powerful magic user, and for some reason, when he died, he came back as this skeleton with a LOT of power." 3

Ranma nodded.

"I wish I had a home to go to."

"Huh? What makes you say that you don't have one?"

Grave sighed and pulled her knees up to her chin. "Remember how we first met? And I said that everyone I ever met had tried to kill me?"

Ranma nodded, truthfully, he had almost forgotten about it until she brought it up.

"Well, the only home I know is back in Atlanta where Brianna, Gina, Britanny, their friends and family live. Me? The only place I ever lived has been inside Brianna's head. And," Grave started to shake a bit, "I don't want to go back into her head. Back to those cold shadows where I would just freeze and die. I don't want to be so cold any more. I want my own light, my own warmth, my own life. But no one understands it. They all take for granted what I don't have."

Ranma frowned as he watched Grave placed her head on her legs. The small Lycanthropoid started sobbing lightly. "What's that?"

"Memories, a life, they all have these things, and I, I don't."

Ranma frowned a bit as Grave started crying. He didn't know why he couldn't stand to see a girl upset and cry, but he knew that it bothered him greatly, it was doubly so because it was his friend Grave. So thinking, he wrapped his arms around her, hoping to calm her down. 'It seems to work when she's having those nightmares.'

Ranma didn't need to dwell on it any longer for Grave let her legs fall to the floor and she hugged him back. The pigtailed martial artist held Grave to him as her body shook and tears fell from her eyes onto his shirt. "Grave?"

"Hm?"

"Remember what I said when we first met? That you aren't a shadow of someone because you care whether or not you are one?"

Grave nodded against his chest.

"Well, I have to say that you have a life and memories of your own." He smiled a bit, although Grave couldn't see it. "I mean, you traveled with me for the last month, and I've never met Britanny, Brianna, or Gina, so I can't comment on them, but you know someone that they don't. And well, I honestly don't think of you as someone else. You're just Grave, no one else. Grave is Grave and no one else."

Grave blinked and looked up at him. "You mean it? I'm my own person after all?"

Ranma nodded. "I always thought you were. How can you be someone other than yourself?"

Grave blinked a few times. "Wow. For someone without a lot of schooling, that's pretty deep."

"I know... HEY!"

The small Werecheetah giggled at him. Ranma mock-glared at her but soon joined her. "Actually, I heard that from a monk who told me this, 'If you ever question who are, remember this, you are you and no one else.'" 4

Grave nodded, feeling better. "Thank you."

Ranma nodded at her and the younger girl, being, technically, only two months old at the most, closed her eyes, cuddled up closer to him and tried to relax enough to get some sleep. 5, 6

Inside Grave Digger's mind there was the chaotic scene once again, however, this time, there was less color, though it still moved as erratically as before. Now it was blue, black, red and green, just with motes of white and purple. In the middle of this was Grave, shivering like she was cold, but not curled up like the last time she was here. Instead the Lycanthropoid was glaring at the colors and taunting voices, if they were coming from a single direction. "I am not afraid of you!"

Similar to last time, the colors merged together, to form people that she knew from before she met Ranma, only this time, they didn't look as scary as last time.

The form of Gina Diggers smirked cruelly at her. "Oh really? Do you HONESTLY believe that you're not afraid of this? Come on, you know you don't have a life of your own. Who in their right mind would care for a freak, no abomination like you? Huh? Name one person."

Grave clenched her fist and glared at the form. "I know one person who cares for me. He even told me I had a life of my own." As one, the figures in front of her started laughing. "It's true! Oh, it's damn true!" 7

'Britanny' stopped laughing, narrowed her eyes at Grave and spoke in a sarcastic tone. "Oh really? I bet the only reason he's even hanging out with you is because he doesn't have many friends. He said it himself that he didn't have many friends in life. So he's only with you because there wasn't anyone else around for him to be with."

Grave winced a bit. "Maybe. But still, he told me that I'm my own person! That I have my own life!" Tears were streaming down her face now. "I no longer need to live in fear of you!" Glaring at all the figures, even as tears fell down her face she continued. "I am no longer afraid of you! Any of you! No matter what you say, it isn't real! I have a life of my own now! So... JUST GO AWAY!!!"

Suddenly the figures vanished, the wild colors disappeared and golden light filled the area.

Grave hugged herself and rolled her shoulders a bit. "Warm. It's so warm." 8

Ranma blinked as Grave's body finally started to relax and her muscles weren't so tense. 'What happened?' He shook his head, he didn't know, probably better not to know either. But he still wanted to practice a bit, so he layed Grave down so she was resting comfortably on the bed and pulled the blanket, one that he had been given so that he didn't freeze at night, over her so she could sleep more comfortably.

Standing up, he moved away from Grave so he could work out a bit without bothering her. As he worked out, Ranma frowned as he thought up a little tid-bit of information. In the last several fights that he had been in, he hadn't done so well, even if he had gotten better. 'But why? Damn it! If only I had some way of getting better faster, then I could've won some of those fights, or had an easier time with them.'

As he continued to work out, Ranma's eyes glinted a bit and he started to reach into the depths of his mind, where a black spot was. He didn't like using it, but he figured that if he had used it during his last fight he wouldn't be in here... Or at least it wouldn't be so easy for him to be in the situation that he was in. 9

A low growl uttered from his throat as he picked up the pace, moving faster and stronger than he could move before, as well as an uncanny animalistic grace in his movements that was normally not present. Glancing at Grave, Ranma made a promise that he would find _SOME_ way to get them both out of this, even if he could only get her out, he would do so. Being partially submerged into the Neko-Ken allowed him some greater physical attributes, but for some reason, when he tried to unsheath his claws, they weren't coming out. 'But why? My claws should come out when I want them to, so why aren't they?' 10

Shelving those thoughts away for later, Ranma continued to workout while his mind was partially under the influence of the Neko-Ken. As he continued to work out, a faint glow started to envelope his body as he pushed himself to go harder and faster than he had ever gone before. The scrolls said to push physical limits so that his body could handle gathering larger amounts of Ki and Chi without harm.

As he worked out, he pondered what he was going to do about getting out of here, and more importantly, how to get Grave out of here. There was something funny going on. 'After all, why are they keeping both me and Grave here? It just doesn't make much sense to me.'

Preview of next chapter: "Zzzzzzzzz."

"Sorry, Grave's asleep. And Rookie has the script for the next chapter, so I can't tell you what's going to happen."

"DON'T CALL ME ROOKIE! Just for that... I won't tell ANYONE what the next chapter is about."

".... Dang."

1 Someone said that Rook should get more channels. So, he does. Heh, Disney channel.

2 Rook was watching the part just before the witch, who placed the curse on Sleeping Beauty, turned into a Dragon. I can't spell the witch's name, and it's been awhile since I've seen the movie. Just a minor tidbit of information to pass on.

3 Grave was making a reference to the Lich King. For those who don't know who the Lich King is, I'll try to explain it to you. Theo had a father named Jonathan Diggers, an Arch Aura Mage. Anyway, one day, when Gina and Britanny were really young, an experiment of his went wrong and killed him. Unfortunately, Jonathan's magic didn't die with him and he turned into a Lich, or Undead Magic user. Because of the SHEER amount of magic power that he had, Jonathan took over the Undead Realm for roughly 20 years, and during this time, called himself the Lich King.

His reign of terror ended, in the Gold Digger universe, about a year or two ago at this time, when he ran out of power. If you don't know what I'm talking about, well you see, Undead Aura Mages are twice as powerful as living Aura Mages. HOWEVER... Any power that they use, they can't recover. So basically, it's like this... If you're an Undead Aura Mage and you have 1,000,000 Magic Points, and you use 300,000 Magic Points to cast a spell, well, you can't get those 300,000 Magic Points back, no matter what. (For those who play Final Fantasy, even Ethers, Hi-Ethers, Full-Ethers, Elixers, ETC, can't replenish a Lich's lost Magic Points.)

One more thing, if you're confused about the fact that Jonathan's magic didn't die with him, well, I'm not sure about this myself, but somehow, when an Aura Mage dies and his or her magic doesn't die with them, the magic Aura that surrounds them corrupts their soul.

4 I figure Ranma would hear SOMETHING bordering on Zen principles while on his training trip. It's probably the only thing that kept him from going insane during the Manga and Anime while he was in Nerima. I know I couldn't handle even half the crap he did while in Nerima.

5 One question: Was this a bit too WAFFy?

6 Technically, Brianna's only about three years old right now. Just a tidbit of information to pass on... Just like note two.

7 With all appologies to Kurt Angle of the former WWF. (Yes, I watch pro wrestling on occassion.)

8 Wow. Grave finally battled back against her fears and won. The biggest fear that she ever had, and even Brianna had this fear, was the fact that she was only a clone of Britanny and Gina, a shadow that didn't have her own life. Well, what does this mean for the future of Grave Digger and Ranma? Wait and see.

9 Influenced by Cory D. Rose's fanfiction: Golden Opportunity. Find it at 

10 Influenced by Grum's fanfiction: Neko Senshi. Find it at 

11 I'll put numbers in brackets in the chapters if I have a lot of notes to make. One question... Is it better to have brackets in the chapter telling you about a note on that particular subject or no numbers so you people don't get curious about what the note is about and jump to the end? Let me know about it.


	12. 11

Grave's New Life  
  
Chapter Eleven  
  
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to these series... Though maybe I can get the rights from Genma for a fish, two pickles and some rice. *Ducks blunt, sharp, and Amazon objects of death.* Gomen, gomen, gomen. Anyway, Rumiko Takahashi-sama owns Ranma 1/2 and High Lord Fred Perry owns Gold Digger.  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
Inside the Armsmaster Palace, Tirant, the bald leader of the group of criminals trying to take over Jade, raised an eyebrow. "Array, what are you doing with that?"  
  
The pink haired woman smirked. "Well dearest, after G'Nolga keeps her position as Armsmaster, I was going to give it to those kids and let them leave."  
  
Tirant nodded. "Okay, but why?" Personally, he didn't see why they should give a powerful artifact like that away.  
  
Array shrugged. "Payment, I guess."  
  
"Still, why do you have to use that?"  
  
'That' was the item that had allowed Array and Tirant to get to Jade in the first place. [1]  
  
"It's not like we're going to need it if our plans all go well." She argued.  
  
"Hmm, true... I suppose that giving it to them after our plans are done with."  
  
'Say, weren't we planning to give it to the girl?'  
  
'Yeah, I thought we were too.'  
  
'Shut up, we will. But not right now.'  
  
'Are you telling me to shut up?! Maybe you should roll in a cow pie.'  
  
Array's eye twitched. "Excuse me dear. My otherselves are having an arguement and it's getting offensive."  
  
Tirant nodded and let his girlfriend go.  
  
The pink-haired woman left her taller boyfriend, having a mental fight, thankfully none of her other personalities were arguing outloud, so she didn't have to worry about anyone hearing what they had to say.  
  
'We should tell him.'  
  
'Why? This isn't like with the Demi-Golem.'  
  
'I know that! But do you honestly think those two children like being held like this?'  
  
'Technically speaking, they're teenagers, not children.'  
  
'Tomato, tamato. Neither one is an adult yet.'  
  
'Well, technically, neither was Brianna Diggers, yet we placed her on trial, sent her to prison AND got her into deep trouble with her mother.'  
  
'We all know how THAT turned out.'  
  
"Alright you guys, quiet down in there. You're giving me a headache." Array muttered to herself.  
  
'Sure thing boss.' All the voices spoke at once.  
  
Array sighed and walked into the room where her blue armored Undead ally was. "Uh, Rook?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"What are you doing?" Looking at the Undead, it was easy to understand her bewilderment.  
  
Rook was strutting around the room, and occassionally making poses like a bodybuilder would. "You really shouldn't worry too much."  
  
Array nodded. "Uh huh."  
  
"If you're still worried about the Northern Edge Guard, don't worry... For the MACHO UNDEAD ROOK SAVAGE shall take care of them!!" [2] Striking a pose Rook let off with an "OOOOH YEAH!"  
  
Array slapped her forehead. 'I don't know how, I don't know why, but television has warped his Undead brain.'  
  
Shaking her head in disgust, she left the room with the brain warped, but still useful, Undead and just walked down the halls.  
  
'Ugh, I've got idiots on one side, good guys on the other, vengeful old women on the other side and my compassion.' Array asked a question that no one had ever been able to answer before. "Why is good help so hard to find?"  
  
"I don't know. Maybe because all the good help for our plan isn't available?"  
  
"Maybe? But I thought it was because good help doesn't exist?"  
  
"Hey come on, we're giving the boss a headache."  
  
"Sorry boss."  
  
Truthfully, Array didn't mind her other personalities, they just gave her headaches sometimes. Shaking her head she walked into a Troll, one of the smarter ones, that worked for Rook. "Your boss is an idiot. So, did that boy have anything useful on him?"  
  
The Troll, about eight feet tall, solid muscle, green skin coloring holding a large club in one hand, shook its head. "Just some scrolls, stuff I don't really understand, a rather sharp knife and a spatula."  
  
Array pinched the bridge of her nose. 'Of course you wouldn't know, you're a Troll.' She really couldn't believe the help that Rook had gotten them.  
  
'Hey! Don't forget that some of us in here aren't the sharpest tools in the shed either.'  
  
'But none of us are Trolls.'  
  
'True, though I come the closest by being a Rock-Giant.'  
  
'Hey guys, the boss's getting a headache again.'  
  
'Ooops.'  
  
Actually, Array didn't get headaches, she was long since used of the conversations in her head, so they didn't bother her. Yet all the thinking and talking from the others made it harder to concentrate on what she was doing at that moment.  
  
Array shook her head and told the Troll to toss the backpack in with the prisoners, that is, after she got a look through it.  
  
Walking over to it and opening it, Array started digging through the stuff in the backpack. 'If there's nothing that can hinder our plans in here, I'll let him have it back.'  
  
'You know, we don't make much of a bad guy do we?'  
  
'Not really. But you have to admit, getting on the good side of some of those 'good-guys' is probably one of the best moves that we've made.'  
  
'You mean besides getting Tirant as a boyfriend?'  
  
'That too.'  
  
Array sweatdropped from the conversations in her head, they were starting to bug her.  
  
***  
  
Meanwhile, in another part of the Armsmaster castle, G'nolga, disputed Armsmaster of Jade was working out with her staff, a rather long bo staff that was segmented in three parts, each different part connected by a chain, but the three parts could be reconnected into a long staff that was longer than she was tall. The chestnut haired woman was thinking about all that was going on at the moment. 'Why the hell did I go along with those three?' She questioned herself before growling and moving with a flurry that very few people could hope to match.  
  
Memories of what Tirant, Hanza, and Rook had said to her, to convince her to take such a coward's way out. They convinced her to go against everything that she had stood for, just to take over Jade. 'The only reason I ever teamed up with them was to get a clean shot at Julia, no tricks, no nothing, just me and her, so WHY did I choose this path?'  
  
Growling, the Dwarf did a quick spin kick and threw her weapon into the stone pillar that acted as the wall, shattering it. Panting a bit heavilly, she growled. "Julia, you had better be the one I face in the finals. I'll never forgive you otherwise." 'Or myself.' She added to herself. While G'nolga hated losing to Julia, it was still better for her honor and pride to lose to the redhead than to take such a coward's way out. [3]  
  
Growling a bit, she shook her fist in impotent fury as she remembered how Rook, Hanza and Tirant had talked her into going along with them, how honor didn't factor into their decision. How that bald bastard Tirant had said that taking over Jade was just business and that honor and her personal goals didn't matter in the equation, how Hanza played on her pride to get her to go along by questioning whether she could stand to lose to Julia again, and how Rook had made mention that this was the best chance she had to beat Julia.  
  
"And that's why I agreed to kidnap Brianna and help Julia lose her honor." She muttered to herself.  
  
Of course, at that moment, a certain blue armored Undead ally of hers was walking up the steps to see her. "So you stopped working out, huh?" He said as he reached the top step, G'nolga's back to him.  
  
She turned and leveled him with such a glare that if it was possible, Rook would be vaporized by her glare alone.  
  
Taken slightly aback, Rook shook his head and spoke. "I just heard from the Bazzar that Julia was fighting in an arena nearby."  
  
G'nolga snorted, she didn't care, all she wanted was one clean, honorable battle with Julia, to restore both their honor. "You're point?"  
  
"It's against her mother, Brunhildagard "Mumsey" Brigand."  
  
THAT got G'nolga's attention. She stared at Rook and smirked a bit. "Well then, that's different. Let's go. I don't want to miss a good fight."  
  
Rook blinked, he would have thought that she would want to see Julia get crushed. He just didn't understand these warriors all that well.  
  
****  
  
Ranma sighed as he started to cool down from his workout. Looking over, he smiled lightly as he saw the small Werecheetah that was his friend sleeping soundly. 'She said that she was part Werecheetah, and a Cheetah's a C, C, Cat... But she don't look like no C, C, Cat that I've ever seen.' After all, cats had slitted eyes, sharp claws, pointed, triangular ears and a nasty disposition. Yet Grave didn't have those things. Her hands had no claws, her eyes were normal, as was her ears. So what if she had a furry body and a tail? His father turned into a Panda, and he was still human.  
  
"Maybe I'm just crazy." He mumbled to himself. There had to be something he could do to get out of this mess. 'But what?'  
  
Preview of Next Chapter: "Hey, this is me, Brianna! Well, in the next chapter, this whole debacle in Jade finally comes to a head, at least for a few characters. We're going to jump ahead a day or two and get to the good stuff. Be there, or I'll sick Peebochu on you!"  
  
_______________________________________________________________________  
  
[1] It was never stated, to my knowledge, just how Array and Tirant got to Jade in the first place, since both were from Earth to begin with. All that is known is that while Tirant was in Jail from a failed attempt to take over New York City, Array was on Jade manipulating the system there. How Array got to Jade in the first place, I have no clue. Later Array broke Tirant out of prison and then took him to Jade to see her handiwork.  
  
[2] All apologies to the Macho Man Randy Savage. (Like I said, I watch pro wrestling on occassion.) I've been meaning to do that for some time now.  
  
[3] Before someone says that there's a continuation error, I modified some of the earlier chapters. *Sigh* This is what happens when you don't have all the issues of the color series, you miss one little issue and you miss some really important info. Anyway, in the comic, G'nolga does question herself why she chose that way, but not until later.  
  
Well, this is my shortest chapter, please forgive me, I've been distracted and I've had slight writer's block. Another note to pass on is that my writing style itself has changed. You could see that, I hope, when I picked up the story with G'nolga. I've attempted to refine and improve my writing style. What do you readers think? Of both the changes and the story itself? 


	13. 12

Grave's New Life  
  
Chapter Twelve  
  
Disclaimer: Who knows who owns the series within? The Shadow knows. BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Actually, the owners of Ranma 1/2 and Gold Digger are Rumiko Takahashi-Sama and the High Lord Fred Perry.  
  
Outside of Grave and Ranma's cell, a green, heavily muscled Ogre blinked as the pink haired villainess, whom his boss, Rook, was working with, walked up to the cell door of the two children that he was supposed to guard. "Uh, what's wrong?" He asked the version of Array that was dressed in a loose gray body suit and holding onto a magic wand with a star on the end.  
  
Array waved her hand and shook her head. "Nothing for you to worry about. I'm just going to take care of the children is all." It was getting late and they would need the little Werecheetah's abilities if the Edge Guard showed up any time soon. 'Maybe I'm just getting paranoid. But I honestly think that something's going to happen soon.' Of course, if G'nolga had kept a low profile, none of the current problems that were heading their way would be bothering them until it was too late.  
  
The Ogre shrugged. Like most Ogres, this one wasn't exactly that smart either. "Whatever." It didn't bother him, just as long as he didn't have to deal with the problem personally.  
  
The magic using version of Array nodded at him. Opening the door, she looked in and smiled seeing both of the occupants sleeping inside. She didn't know how long they had been sleeping, but at least neither of them was going to cause too much trouble at that point. "Hey, Ogre, get the girl out of there and follow me."  
  
The Ogre grumbled a bit, but did as asked, since his boss said to take orders from everyone that he was working with. Getting his large, muscled carcass through the door was no easy feat, but he did manage. Once inside, he walked over to the bed and, using one of his large hands, picked up the little Werecheetah around her body and lifted her up and out of the bed, before leaving the room again.  
  
The magic user had to sweat-drop as the Ogre squeezed his way through the door. In a way, it looked like a clown trying to get out of a car that was three sizes to small to get out of. "What do I do with her?" The Ogre asked in a gruff voice.  
  
Array shook her head. "Close the door and follow me." She said and turned around to walk down the hallway of the Armsmaster's Palace.  
  
Nodding the Ogre did just that. He kicked the door so that it would shut and followed the magic user. She asked him to follow her and Rook wasn't going to expend any of his Ghost Knights that guarded the perimeter of the place to guard a human who didn't have any importance to his plans.  
  
As they walked down the hallway, Array blinked as she saw G'nolga walking down the hallway towards her. She shrugged as the chestnut haired Dwarf, wearing a green one-piece warrior dress just passed right by her. Array was about to leave when G'nolga spoke up. "You know where your boyfriend is, girl?"  
  
"In the main chambers. Why do you ask?" She asked G'nolga, curious as to why there was a touch of panic in her voice.  
  
The Dwarf turned to her and had a thoughtful look on her face. "Is one of your other selves there?" She asked, remembering what Tirant had told her a few days ago.  
  
Array nodded. "Yes, the main one of us is there. Want me to relay a message to him?"  
  
G'nolga nodded. "Yes. Our plan has a serious problem to it." While Array was blinking, G'nolga explained. "A bit ago, Julia and her mother fought to determine which of the two would fight in the tournament." Normally, G'nolga wouldn't be so worried, expect for what happened at the end in the fight.  
  
"Yeah, so? I take it something happened that you didn't expect?"  
  
The Dwarf nodded seriously. "Yes. Julia won." She stated, sounding shocked that such a thing should have happened. At least against Julia's mother. The redhead had never been able to beat her mother in a fight before. In fact, from what G'nolga understood of Brunhildagard Brigand, her husband of nearly fifty years, the Ninja Weaponsmaster, Tsunami Brigand, was the last person to beat her in a straight-out fight.  
  
The pink haired villianess from Earth blinked, not really understanding the situation at all. "Uhh... What?"  
  
G'nolga rolled her eyes. She hated having to explain everything to the people she worked with. "Julia and her mother fought. Julia's never been able to best her mother in a fight before. Yet, today, she was able to come out on top in a fight."  
  
Array nodded slowly. "That still doesn't explain why you sound so shocked. Sometimes things like that happen."  
  
The Dwarf nodded. "I was getting to that. Hilda, Julia's mother, was tossing her daughter around like a piece of dirty laundry. In the end, Julia got desperate and used a powerful technique called the Master Blow."  
  
"Master Blow?" Array asked, confused as she blinked a few times.  
  
The Ogre grunted, he had heard of that move before. He had even seen it used before. "An almost forbidden move. You put all your strength and energy into a single strike. I've seen Dragons get knocked out by it." He said in a gruff voice.  
  
The Dwarven Weaponsmaster, currently Armsmaster, since she hadn't won the Tournament of Arms yet, nodded, impressed that the Ogre had at least ten brain cells in an otherwise empty head. "That's about it. Julia used that move to knock her mother off her feet. For a moment, it looked like Julia had won."  
  
"I sense a 'but' in there, G'nolga." Array said seriously. Hoo boy, if something bad had happened, her boyfriend would have to think up some way for them to come out on top. He was Tirant, a mastermind of a criminal, but if something unexpected happened, it would be bad.  
  
The Dwarf nodded, a serious cast on her face. "Yes. Julia's mother was able to stand up after receiving the blow, but was badly hurt. As bad as she was, Julia was left so drained that she couldn't fight back."  
  
Array blinked. If that was the case, then how did Julia win? It didn't make any sense. Unless Hilda had let Julia win. That would have made more sense to the villianess than somehow Julia pulling out a miracle victory out of nowhere.  
  
"Anyway, even I thought the fight was over. But then Julia pulls a new move out and uses it. Somehow she was able to use it to heal herself up." It wouldn't have been so bad if it wasn't for the fact that magic in the arenas was useless. That, and all Julia did was take some deep breaths of air. [1]  
  
"But, but aren't the arenas blocked from magic use?" Array asked, surprised about that.  
  
G'nolga nodded. "That's why I need to see your boyfriend, girl. Because if we don't find out how she did that, we're finished." G'nolga wasn't really concerned with the fact that Julia knew how to heal herself. What the Dwarf was really worried about was the fact that Julia could use it in their fight and she'd have no way of being able to beat the redhead. After all, there wasn't anyone in the tournament that could beat either her or Julia in a fight, so she wasn't too worried about whom her opponent was going to be.  
  
"Really, G'nolga? I would have thought that you would know of a way to get out of this one on your own." Came a calm and distinguished voice from behind the Dwarf.  
  
Raising an eyebrow and turning around, G'nolga looked at Tirant, dressed in a blue robe, next to him was the main body of Array, in her usual short black skirt, the former was smirking at her lightly. "You have an idea?" She asked, curiously.  
  
Tirant nodded. "Indeed."  
  
As Tirant explained his plan, G'nolga's features darkened more and more with each word. As the bald crime leader finished speaking, he asked her what she thought of the plan. "Tirant, there is no honor in this plan." Why couldn't he find some honorable way out of it? Why did he have to resort to kidnapping Julia's youngest daughter and other forms of extortion to get what he wanted? What was so hard about doing things the correct and honorable way?  
  
Tirant rolled his eyes. "G'nolga, just go along with it. This is business. Keep your personal vendettas out of it." He said seriously, narrowing his eyes at the Dwarf. Not that he'd be able to do much to her, since she was the most important part of his plan.  
  
G'nolga snarled and turned to leave. "Fine! But only after Julia's first- round fight."  
  
Tirant raised an eyebrow. "What is this? Respect? I thought you didn't give respect to anyone, G'nolga."  
  
"Heh. I'm waiting for after her fight to get her at the Tavern." There would be lots of witnesses to see what was going to happen. Smirking darkly, G'nolga walked down the hallway and turned the corner.  
  
Tirant nodded as the Dwarf walked off. "About time." He muttered. Finally, G'nolga was doing things the correct way, business-like, and leaving her own personal vendettas out of it. He blinked when he heard a low moan coming from the Ogre. "Hmm?" He blinked when the little Werecheetah in the left hand of the Ogre stirred and woke up. He looked at the version of Array that was right next to the Ogre. "What were you planning on doing with her?" He asked curiously.  
  
That version of Array shrugged. "Just thought we might need her help tonight. Call it women's intuition."  
  
Tirant raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything.  
  
In the Ogre's hand, Grave blinked as a few things came to her mind. One, she wasn't in a bed anymore. Two, her friend wasn't anywhere near her, at least from what she could see. Three, there was that mean bastard of an electric user, Tirant in front of her. The small Werecheetah frowned as she realized that she was away from her friend and that bald jerk wanted to see her again.  
  
She was about to say something, when she heard Array speak of some help that night. "What?"  
  
The only man in the hallway smirked at her. "Array thinks something will happen tonight. Whether it does or not, remains to be seen. But I suppose that we could use your help with that."  
  
Grave rolled her eyes. "Let me guess, I don't have a choice in the matter, do I?" Seeing Tirant nod, she sighed. "Alright, I'll do it." Besides, there was no telling what they would do to her friend if she didn't comply.  
  
Tirant smiled and clapped his hands together once. "Put her down." He said to the Ogre, before turning to the version of his girlfriend next to the creature. "Have her roam the palace as a guard." The bald man cupped his chin. "Also, make sure she doesn't go near her friend." He added as an after-thought and left, the main body of Array following him.  
  
After the Ogre placed her down, Grave grumbled as the bald man left. 'Stupid jerk!' She thought to herself. Why could he just let her and Ranma go? It wasn't like they were a big part of his plans. He said so himself. Well, okay, Tirant hadn't said that, but that's what she got from the attitudes that he and the others of the group had towards her. It was almost like they were using her for something.  
  
How little she knew.  
  
It was about middle of the afternoon as Hanza, the man-turned-woman in charge of security for Tirant, was standing at the front gate of the Armsmaster palace bored out of her mind and turning people down who wanted to enter and weren't invited. Dressed in an orange cloak that covered her entire body with a hood over her head, she sighed and grumbled a bit. 'Why do I have to be the head of security?' She thought to herself. Then again, it was better than listening to, the now insane, Rook, as he went on and on about some stupid things that he saw in that crystal ball of his.  
  
(----)  
  
"ACHOO!" Sniffing a bit, the blue armored Undead blinked. "I thought Ghost Knights don't get sick." He muttered to himself. He then shrugged and went back to his program. "Heh heh heh. This is pretty good." He said as he leaned back in his chair in the room he was in.  
  
"We will return to the Network Television Premier of "Shrek" after these messages."  
  
Under his mask, Rook frowned. "Why does there have to be so many freaking commercials?! Can't there be a program without any stupid commercials on it?! Why must I be tortured?!" The armored Undead cried out to any who cared to hear him. He grumbled and changed the channel. Oh look, one of those politicians from Earth was on.  
  
The Undead rolled his eyes politics bored him. Changing the channel again, he leered at the screen. "Oh goodie! Babe Watch!" He chuckled maniacally as he watched the girls run on the beach in their skimpy bathing suits. "Ooh yeah, this is how things should be for the Macho Undead Rook Savage!" He said in his best macho voice he could muster.  
  
(----)  
  
Outside the Armsmaster palace, Hanza blinked as five people in different colored robes were walking up to her. 'Now what?' She thought. The first one walking up to her was a five foot seven inch bald black man in a blue hooded robe with a lute strapped to his back. 'What's with all the bald people?' She thought. First Tirant, now this guy.  
  
The second one to catch her attention was a five foot five inch young man with red hair, green eyes, a white bandanna on his forehead, and was wearing a green hooded cloak.  
  
The third one was a man that was six foot three inches, with orange-blonde hair that had black highlights, with light blue eyes and had looks that could make any woman practically beg for a night in the sack. He was wearing a red hooded robe and seemed to be slightly distracted by something.  
  
The forth one was a female. Hoo boy, was she big! Standing at seven feet tall wearing a transparent shawl on her face, with red hair, green eyes, and, from what little Hanza could see as she was wearing a hooded purple cloak, legs and curves to drive most women green with envy.  
  
The fifth and last one was a seven foot two inch man with light blonde hair. He had a harp in his hands and had light blonde hair on his head; he was wearing a white hooded cloak.  
  
Hanza frowned; there was something wrong with this picture. She just hadn't figured it out yet. "Halt! State your business."  
  
The first man stepped up to speak with her. "My companions and I are traveling minstrels. We are here to perform for honorable Weaponsmaster G'nolga." He finished with a bow.  
  
The man in red smirked and turned to the woman in the group and whispered. "Heh, Thropan missed his true calling. He should have been an entertainer. Look at him go."  
  
The woman frowned. "Shut up, Tirga. You'll blow his cover."  
  
The man in green nodded. "You too, sis. Onoli, you think she'll buy it?" He asked the man in the white cloak.  
  
"I'm not sure, Gar. I just hope she will." The Werelion in human form whispered to his friend.  
  
Sheila, the woman in purple, frowned as she watched Thropan argue with the woman in the orange hooded cloak. Now, where did she see that woman before? "We're not dealing with those idiotic bandits this time. These people aren't going to be fooled so easily." She whispered.  
  
After a bit of arguing between Hanza and Thropan. A new voice spoke up. "Let them in." Even though Hanza knew who it was by his voice, she turned her head and looked up at the blue armored Undead Knight, who was leaning against an upper balcony, looking down at them.  
  
Hanza frowned at hearing what Rook said. "You're not in charge of security here, Rook. I am."  
  
"Feh, so what? Do as I say before I drop the big elbow on that empty head of yours."  
  
Hanza rolled her eyes and looked at the humans in front of her. "Ignore him, he's slightly crazy right now." She said as if it happened all the time with him.  
  
"Let them in, Hanza." Rook said smugly. "We could sure use the... Entertainment."  
  
Hearing that, Sheila frowned. "I REALLY don't like the way he said that." She muttered to herself.  
  
The head guard rolled her eyes. "Very well, follow me." She said, turning and letting the Werecats in human guise follow her.  
  
There was a flash of yellow smoke as Rook materialized in the hallway, carrying two swords. "Hold it, Hanza. I need some music to work out to." He grinned, though no one could see it. "I like listening to music to work out. Yeah, baby, yeah!"  
  
Hanza looked at him with a raised eyebrow. Just what had he been watching in that crystal ball? "Fine, just get them to the guest wing afterwards."  
  
Rook nodded. "Follow me, this won't take too long." He chuckled darkly, knowing that those foolish Werecats in human form would follow him right into a trap. Hmm... Perhaps he'd leave the female alive; after all, he had to show her his mojo. [2]  
  
The tall redhead shuddered, a feeling of nausea and terror unlike any she had ever experienced before washing over her.  
  
The Edge Guard, not wanting to give away their cover, followed the slightly insane Undead Knight down the hall and into a small room with white walls and a wooden floor. "Here's a small room to play your instruments in."  
  
Sheila gulped and pulled out her instrument, an enchanted oboe. Something wasn't right about the situation. She knew it. But for the life of the redhead, she couldn't put her finger on it. "Um, thank you. What do you want us to play, sire?" She asked, playing the part of a minstrel to a key.  
  
As he sat down, Onoli frowned. Something wasn't right about all this.  
  
Rook walked to the center of the room and glanced at the Edge Guard, especially Sheila as she moved her cloak apart, showing her rather skimpy clothing that she was wearing; a small purple bikini bottom that barely covered her privates while showing her hips entirely, with a transparent cloth that was attached to the waistband of the bikini bottom. Rook would have put money on the thought that the redhead's backside was completely exposed, as the thing looked to be a thong. Her rather large breasts were being held back by two triangular flaps that barely covered anything and were connected at the center of her breasts, with a transparent piece of cloth that dangled down to her hips. [3]  
  
"Oh, I don't know. Something upbeat, something fast-paced. I like to workout to situations." Rook grinned under his mask. "In my situation, I like to think of Rangers, Paladins, or even the Northern Edge Guard, as they try to sneak by the Macho's mental prowess using disguises such as peddlers, cooks, or even traveling minstrels." Rook smirked under his mask as the majority of the Edge Guard paled and started getting nervous. "Yet, they fail to realize that Macho's all ready for them, by leading them to a practice arena that's sealed from magic, just as the arena's of the tournament are. So any disguises they were using, such as a magic pot, or enchanted instruments, would no longer work. Oooh yeah!" He didn't have to mention that their magic weapons and shape-shifting abilities would be shut off as well, he was reasonably sure that they could figure that out on their own. "Now play! Play for the Macho Undead Rook Savage before I, SNAP INTO A SLIM JIM! Err... Stab my swords into the Edge Guard! Oooh yeah!" Rook exclaimed, his eyes glowing a bright red as he held up his katana rapier swords.  
  
Sheila had a large bead of sweat on her face as she watched Rook act like that while blue in the face with terror. "If the situation wasn't so serious, I'd be laughing." Tirga and Gar nodded quickly as Rook made a fool of himself.  
  
"Easy guys, I got this one." Thropan said, extremely calm as he pulled out his lute. "I thought up a new song on the way here. It's upbeat and the tempo is pretty fast. I doubt you'll be able to keep up with me." The bald Werepanther in human form said as he leaned against the wall and strummed his hands over the strings.  
  
Sheila's eyes widened. 'Thropan... Can play?' She thought in amazement as her friend and teammate started playing an incredible tune. One that made everyone stop and stare in awe.  
  
Onoli leaned back a little to whisper to Tirga. "You were right. Thropan missed his true calling. I just hope our host likes it."  
  
Rook shuddered and turned to the door. "You may go. Excuse me a minute." He said his voice cracking as he quickly left the room.  
  
As soon as the Undead Knight was out of the room, Tirga flopped to the floor on his back in relief. "Whew! I thought he'd never leave!"  
  
Sheila, standing over him, frowned at him. "Oh come on, it wasn't that bad!" She said, ignoring the fact that she was just as scared as he was. Sheila blinked as a rather goofy grin came over Tirga's features. "Hey, what's up with you?" She asked, wondering why he looked like he was leering at her.  
  
Tirga grinned and chuckled. "Heh, from this position, I can see all your talent and assets to the team, Sheila."  
  
It took only two seconds to process what Tirga had just said to her. Blushing the same color as her hair, Sheila quickly wrapped her cloak around her body and walked away, muttering how perverted the Weretiger was.  
  
Behind her, Thropan shook his head. Tirga was Tirga, and he wouldn't change, even with a cannon pointed right at him. The Werepanther did have to admit that Sheila did have a rather good looking rear-end. If Gar hadn't asked him not to make any moves on Sheila, he might have tried to get her for a girlfriend. He shrugged, no use crying over what might have been. [4]  
  
(----)  
  
Elsewhere, Grave sighed as she walked down the wooden and stone hallways. She looked at the clothes she was wearing in disgust. Oversized blue robes with red trim and a hood was not her cup of tea. Oh well, at least people looking for her wouldn't recognize her right away. Which was a plus in her book, she didn't need Brianna or someone of that girl's family trying to kill her right away. 'At least I got my mage suit on underneath this.' She did wonder if anyone ever wore any underwear under the mage suits. They were so tight that if someone did, it would more than likely stand out.  
  
She frowned as another thought came to her. What was she going to do after this was all over? Most of the people on Jade wouldn't understand, they'd lock her up and throw away the key. 'Yeah, I just had to get into that fight back in Seer's Hamlet with Brianna, didn't I?' She thought bitterly to herself. [5]  
  
"Stupid mages." The small Werecheetah muttered to herself, the end of her tail swaying back and forth behind her from underneath her cloak. Grumbling, she sighed and continued down the hallway. At least the Ogres and Trolls, as few as they were, weren't bothering her.  
  
On Earth...  
  
"What about this one?" Genma asked from his place on the floor among a pile of books and scrolls, as he held up one of the few remaining scrolls that he and Soun had not read at yet. They had been at this for days now, with no significant results.  
  
His black haired friend looked at hit and frowned. "That's the scroll to make all women in a specific area spontaneously strip off their clothing." [6]  
  
The portly bald man in his dingy white Gi blinked. "And you-know-who didn't use this?" He asked, not able to believe it.  
  
Soun tapped his chin. "Well, from what I remember about that scroll, the women will strip naked, but then they gravitate towards the best looking male in the area." And as much as it pained both Soun and Genma to admit it, neither of them were the best-looking guys in any area. It was quite a miracle that they had found a woman that loved them.  
  
Neither of them had to think much about their master, who looked older than dirt. They both just hoped that he was long gone by now.  
  
"Right, right. Forgot about that." Genma said seriously. "Hmm... How about this one?" He asked, holding up a book. He hated reading if he didn't have to.  
  
Soun frowned. Something about the book looked suspicious, why, it was older than most of the rest, but kept in good condition. Grabbing it from Genma's hand, he began to read aloud. "Today I took on two new students. One's a chubby idiot, but has good potential for the art. Why, he might be able to give me a run for my money some day. Heh, what am I thinking? The fool will never be able to give me a run for my money, at least as he is now. The thin one, he already has some basic training, but he likes to work about as much as his chubby friend. Hmm... I'll have to whip them into shape." Soun stopped and blinked. "Um, Genma?"  
  
"Yeah?" Came the voice of his best friend from the pile of scrolls and books. "What?"  
  
"I think this is you-know-who's diary." He said seriously.  
  
Genma blinked as he sat up. "Hmm... Maybe our answer to the scroll I used will be in there?"  
  
Soun blinked, surprised that his friend would have such a flash of insight like that. "True. I'll read the book, you check the scrolls, see if any of them are a return spell."  
  
"Excellent idea, Tendo! Glad I thought of it!" Genma said, obviously proud of himself.  
  
Soun sweat-dropped, but didn't correct his friend and started flipping through Happosai's diary, hopefully to find something that would get them the answers they needed.  
  
(----)  
  
Downstairs, Nabiki shook her head as Akane walked into the room from the attic. "Are daddy and his friend still looking for that scroll?" Personally, she didn't believe a word of what Genma had told them. Magic? It didn't exist, outside of illusions and minor tricks that the Voodoo kid used. Then again, the fact that Mr. Saotome could turn into a Panda was something different. If it wasn't for that, she would have tried to talk her father out of going through those books and scrolls in the attic.  
  
Akane shook her head. "Nope. Where's Kasumi?" She asked after a bit.  
  
"Getting the mail." Nabiki gave a sly smirk.  
  
Akane's eyes widened. "You mean?"  
  
The middle Tendo sister nodded. "Yep, today's the day when she finds out."  
  
Akane nodded, hoping that it was good news for her sister. Kasumi needed it after giving up a lot of happiness for their family. [7]  
  
Back on Jade...  
  
Inside his cell, Ranma jerked awake suddenly. "Grave?" He asked, looking at the bed. He got up off the floor from where he was sleeping and got over to the bed. He frowned as he saw Grave was gone. "Dang it!" When had he fallen asleep? And for that matter, who had come in to get Grave?  
  
Looking at the door, he ran over to it and slammed into it, trying to open it. 'Kuso!' He mentally swore. The door was still locked and he hurt his shoulder, thankfully, it was just a dull pain that would go away after a bit. He frowned and nodded. He would get out, just not right then and there. Something was in the air he could feel it. 'Better get prepared.' He thought seriously as he started to bang and pound on the door, demanding to be let out.  
  
Outside of the main tavern at the tournament village, Gina, wearing blue boots that went up to her knees, brown pants, a white t-shirt, a brown jacket, her large glasses, brown gloves on her hands, and her adventurer's hat in her left hand, was using a spy-glass, that could spy around corners, to watch as G'nolga walked purposefully out of the tavern. "So, that's G'nolga, huh?"  
  
Behind her, dressed in long green leggings, a green body suit that had a green skirt that went half way down her thighs, with a pair of numb-chucks on her hips, Luan, a six foot tall girl with brown eyes and short brown hair, spoke up with a hint of nervousness and fear. "We shouldn't engage in a fight with her, she's too dangerous for us."  
  
Behind them, Brianna, dressed in a skin-tight green body suit, shook her head. "Feh, we could get her if we all ganged up on her." After all, even though their dad had said that G'nolga was one of the few that could give her mom a good run for her money, and the Dwarf had kidnapped her a month previous, Brianna felt that as long as they had the numbers game, they could win.  
  
Luan winced, knowing just how dangerous G'nolga really was. Still, it probably was worth it to follow G'nolga and see what was really going on. The only one who completely knew what was going on in the snakes' lair was the snake, after all.  
  
She was about to say something, when Gina found something in the grass sneaking around. "Say, what's that?" She then gasped as she got a good look at the object. "Brianna! It's Peebochu! She's following G'nolga through the tall grass!" Though Gina was still surprised that Brianna made a bit bomb that she simply adored and loved. After all, all it was supposed to do was explode.  
  
In the grass, an object that was light blue in color, with red and yellow stripes just above its eyes that went down its side, in the shape of an American football, with egg-shaped balls for legs, two long eyebrows, light green eyes, a tail with a small ball at the end of it, was following G'nolga as quickly as it could. "Grr! Sneaky bad lady, go boom on you!"  
  
Brianna cupped her chin and smirked. "Heh, Peebochu has the right idea. Let's go." There was a chance that her other self was actually working with G'nolga. There wasn't much of one, but Brianna didn't put it past the little evil Werecheetah to do something like that. So, hopefully, wherever G'nolga went, Grave Digger would be there as well. Not that Brianna wanted to let Gina get close to the little maniac, since she'd probably try and kill her sister, but she had to know if Grave was actually there or not.  
  
The other two nodded and followed Brianna as she followed G'nolga to wherever the Dwarf was heading to.  
  
Later that night, Grave Digger blinked as she heard explosions coming from outside. Frowning and not really wanting to help Tirant out, but knowing that if she didn't at least go to check on the disturbance, she wouldn't like the consequences. She sighed. "Dammit!" She cussed as she ran towards the disturbance, hoping that it was just a stupid Troll or Ogre on a rampage and not what she thought it was.  
  
As she raced down the hallways, Grave shuddered as she got closer and closer to the disturbance. What was bothering her? It was as if something in her was rebelling, telling her to stay as far away from the disturbance as she could be. 'I just hope it's nerves and not something real.' She thought to herself frantically.  
  
On Earth...  
  
"Tendo! I think I found it!" Genma said as he held up a roll of paper that was tattered at the end.  
  
Blinking, Soun looked at the book and at the page it was open to, then back at the scroll. "I don't know. You-know-who never wrote down how to reverse the spell."  
  
Genma frowned. If he couldn't get his son back then... What would he tell his wife? His only hope lay with the scroll in his hands. "Well, let's find out." He said seriously as he opened the scroll. "So you need to bring someone back that you used a gate-scroll on, but don't know how to." Genma blinked. Those were the words on the scroll? To recover those who were lost by a gate scroll, say these words. Remember to say the name of the person you want to come back." Genma nodded, sounded simple enough.  
  
Had he read down a bit further, he would have noticed a minor disclaimer. "Warning, recover spell works best under the light of a full moon." But, Genma, being Genma, didn't read that and just looked at the words of return. "Tendo! I have it!"  
  
Soun looked up sharply. "Seriously? How did you find it so fast?" He asked, curiously.  
  
The bigger man shrugged. "Does it matter?" They had been looking for a few days by now. "We have the scroll, we shall use it soon!" He exclaimed, pointing his right hand straight up and holding the scroll in said hand. "Our dreams shall come true!"  
  
The thinner, black haired man nodded. "Yes! The schools will finally be joined!"  
  
The two grinned at the thought of their life-long dream finally being realized.  
  
Back on Jade...  
  
Frowning as she walked towards the source of the explosions, G'nolga had to wonder what type of security Rook had in this place. It seemed rather lax if the explosions were any indication. She rolled her eyes, it didn't matter too much, she'd take care of the problem and that was that.  
  
Though, she was finally glad that she told Tirant off. Now all she had to do was beat Julia one-on-one in the final round, and her conscious would feel better. She still couldn't believe how pathetic Tirant was, having to kidnap someone to make others do your bidding. Only cowards and fools did that sort of stuff. 'So where does that leave me?' She thought to herself as she walked down the hallway some more.  
  
She never noticed the little machine following her on the ceiling. And even if she had felt something, she wouldn't have seen anything at all.  
  
(----)  
  
"Let me out!" Came an angry and muffled male voice from behind the door.  
  
There was no response.  
  
"Dammit! Let me out!" Came the same voice, followed by a loud banging sound against the Dwarven steel doors.  
  
Inside the cell, Ranma growled as he yelled to be let out. Something was happening he just knew it. He couldn't explain it to anyone who asked, but it was as if the air itself was charged with energy, as if a battle was about to break out and he was going to miss out. 'Is anyone even there?' He thought to himself. There had to be some way out of this. He looked at his right fist. Well, there was one way to find out. Clenching his right fist, he smiled as his forearm started to glow with Ki. 'I just hope I'm right.' He thought. "Star Light Explosion." He whispered, before punching fast and hard straight forward, hitting the middle of the door solidly. His eyes widened tremendously. "Okay, so maybe this wasn't a good idea." He mumbled to himself as a ball of Ki gathered right between his fist and the door, before exploding and sending him flying across the small room and into the wall. The pigtailed martial artist groaned as he slid down from his place of impact.  
  
Ranma shook his head and looked at the door. He goggled at the damage. 'Just a small hole?' He thought in amazement. That punch should have been able to knock the door down with ease, not just put a small hole in it. 'Why didn't it work?' He thought to himself, trying to figure out what was wrong with the move.  
  
Had he known that the door was made out of a metal known as Dwarven Steel, one of the most durable metals on Jade, he wouldn't have been so surprised. [8]  
  
Ranma growled. 'What was it that pops said that one day?'  
  
(Flashback...)  
  
A slightly younger Genma stood over his ten-year-old son and shook his head. "Son, you must remember, that when you get desperate enough, you can overcome any situation. Just remember to find any angle, any ability and you can overcome any opponent." [9]  
  
(End Flashback...)  
  
Ranma nodded. His father may not have been too bright when it came to things outside of fighting, at least he never passed them on, but he knew what he was talking about when it came to the fight. Growling, Ranma crouched down, the tips of his fingers touching the floor, his knees, inches above the ground as his body became outlined in a reddish aura. Though the book had said that he had to be around cats for the full cure to work, Ranma had hoped that his work with the Neko-Ken would bear fruit now.  
  
Ranma never got the chance to see if the partial Neko-Ken would be able to break him out of his cell, as the door swung outward and his current guard, a short, green skinned, bald Ogre, with a paunch belly, good sized arms, wearing leather armor and carrying a club walked in. "Hey! What's all the noise about? You woke up me from my... Arrgh!" He screamed out in pain and surprise as the human boy lunged forward suddenly, slamming both of his closed fists into the Ogre's throat and blasting him out of the cell and into the wall where he fell unconscious from the shock and pain of the brutal attack. He'd heal, being an Ogre and all, but Ranma, in his partial cat mind, didn't care about that as he ran down the hallway. Something was happening; something big, and he had to find out. [10]  
  
(----)  
  
A few minutes before... [11]  
  
Grave, in her cloak, skidded to a stop as she saw the true cause of the disturbance. 'B, Brianna?!' She thought in amazement, and a little bit of fear as she saw the taller blonde in a green body suit that had a visor on her face, shoulder guards, and hip armor on the sides of her body, two large cannons that looked to be attached to the hip armor components and a smaller laser in her hands as she stepped through a large hole in the wall. Behind her stepped another familiar face. 'Gina?!' What the hell was the oldest sister doing here? The small Werecheetah could feel a lingering resentment towards the blonde scientist for having a real life and friends, but nothing more. Behind her was a brown haired girl in green clothes that she had never seen before carrying a Werecat, wearing blue leggings and a blue body suit that Grave could have mistaken for a swimsuit if it wasn't built so durable, that she had seen before. 'And Sheila? What's going on?' She thought, a bit worried. She was quite thankful that they weren't looking at her; otherwise she might have been in trouble.  
  
"I'm picking up four, no, make it five bio-signatures nearby. They're Werecats, just like Sheila. And I've located that bit-bomb for you, Brianna." Gina said as she looked into a device in her hands.  
  
Under her cloak, Grave snarled and started gathering energy for a quick and fast strike. If they thought they were going to take her down, they had another thing coming.  
  
Target detected. Came the information from Brianna's targeting computer.  
  
The taller blonde with the eye stripe on her left eye grinned. "Hot diggity! More targets!" [12]  
  
Growling and holding a ball of blue energy concentrated between her hands, Grave was prepared to let loose her collected torrent of energy at the tall Lycanthropoid, when out of nowhere, Rook appeared behind Brianna, slashing down with his swords, smashing her armor, separating her cannons from her body and knocking her to the floor where she smacked her head onto the ground and fell unconscious.  
  
"Brianna!" Gina cried out in shock and horror as her sister was downed with ease. Brianna may have been a gun nut and a mad bomber, but she wasn't as over-confident in her abilities as Britanny was. Not to mention how fast she was brought down. Didn't she have a shield generator on? She didn't get much time to think about it as Luan shoved Sheila to her, pulled off her numb-chucks and started fighting Rook, yelling at her to get out of there.  
  
From her spot in the shadows, the short Werecheetah in the blue cloak sighed as Rook fought the brown haired girl. Try as she might, she couldn't muster up enough anger and fear to kill them when they weren't looking or weren't a threat to her. Then again, that's how she felt about most people. If they didn't threaten her, she wouldn't hurt them.  
  
Settling down a bit, Grave leaned against the wall and watched as the fight progressed. From her perspective, Rook didn't even look like he was half- trying while the brown haired girl seemed to be fighting fairly hard.  
  
Luan snarled at the Undead Knight and leapt forward. "Gina, get out of here, now!" She screamed as she caught Rook's chin with the chain of her weapon and flipped over him, trying to bring him down.  
  
"Heh, nice move." Rook admitted as the female he was fighting was forcing him to bend backwards. "Too bad I can do THIS!" He said and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, only to reappear next to her with his swords raised up. "Ooh yeah! Now then, little girl..."  
  
"Hold it, Rook. She's mine." Came a female voice from the opposite hallway that Grave was at. "Her style, the way she moves. Yes, she's definitely Julia's student." Everyone turned to see a short woman in green leggings that went up past her knees, a white dress that was green around her middle section, white across her chest, and green around at the top. She was holding a long staff with a chain connecting to a shorter piece of wood on her shoulder, her long, curly brown hair dangled behind her as she walked in.  
  
Luan gasped. "G, G'nolga." She said in a bit of fear. There was no way that she could beat the Dwarf by herself. She'd feel better if Carla was there. At least then she'd have a small chance. 'A very small chance.' She thought to herself.  
  
Grinning, the Dwarf moved her weapon from her shoulders to her hands. "Of course, I'll be generous and let you go IF you manage to defeat me. So, come on girl, show me what teacher's taught you."  
  
"HOLD!" Came a male voice from behind G'nolga. The Dwarf turned her head and raised an eyebrow upon seeing a rather tall male Werecat, with brown fur, a white underside and facial fur, and brown rings on his arms, neck, legs and tail, wearing brown boots, blue pants and a sleeveless shirt with brown lining at the shoulders. On his right hand was a blue fingerless fighting glove, and in said hand was a spear crackling with electricity, he wore a red bandanna around his forehead.  
  
Grave's eyes widened. "G, Gar?" She whispered in shock and fear. Okay, things were really getting out of hand. That Jagwere, like several others by now, had tried to kill her. Heck, he was the one who pulled out a lethal weapon on her back in Seer's Hamlet and he convinced Sheila to do the same, just because she didn't want to have Genn kill her by bringing Brianna back out, since at the time, they shared one body. [13]  
  
Grave blinked as G'nolga connected the ends of her staff together and then closed her eyes. 'What the hell?!' The Werecheetah Lycanthropoid thought, amazed. She couldn't believe that G'nolga would fight two people with her eyes closed like that. As insane as the thought was, what happened next blew her mind away as G'nolga was basically ripping into the two fighters, without opening her eyes once. 'How the heck is she doing that?'  
  
(----)  
  
Groaning and clutching his head as he made his way down the hallway, Ranma was trying to get a hold of his mind, yet not lose the abilities that he had at that moment. "D, Damn... It... All." He managed to groan out in gasps of breath. He had to get control, at least enough to be able to fight with his mind, yet he couldn't lose what he had at that moment. He needed his current abilities to get himself out of this place. Anywhere but here.  
  
As he walked down the hallway, he blinked as he heard a fight going on. "Okay, that's, uh, something." He muttered to himself. If it weren't for that crazy Amazon and that stupid short woman, he wouldn't be in his current predicament.  
  
Growling in an animalistic way, Ranma rushed towards the sound, hoping he wasn't too late. For what, he didn't know.  
  
(----)  
  
Watching the fight, Grave Digger's eyes widened when Gar swung his spear forward, launching from it a powerful wave of electrical energy. And just as amazingly, G'nolga managed to deflect the shot by separating the parts of her staff into a three part numb-chuck and swinging upwards. 'How did she do that?!' She thought in amazement.  
  
Not too far in front of her, Gar's younger sister, Sheila was also amazed that G'nolga managed to deflect the shot. 'Even Onoli's never been able to do that.' She thought in amazement. What had they gotten themselves into this time? All they had to do was blow the lid on G'nolga's scheme and that was that. But instead they ended up fighting the Dwarf as well, not an easy thing to do, considering how dangerous she was.  
  
The fight continued on, but it was a losing effort for both the Jagwere and the brown haired human girl, as G'nolga parried and blocked all their shots with her weapon. The fact that they were losing was made even worse by the fact that their attacks were losing strength and precision as the fight dragged out, yet G'nolga's blocks and attacks were as precise and strong as when the fight had started.  
  
Under his helmet, Rook smirked and looked at the two Diggers' sisters. "It looks like your friends will soon be finished, then you're next. I hope that you've prayed to any Gods and Goddesses that you know for salvation, because I ain't showing you any! You dig it?!"  
  
Brianna sweat-dropped as Rook carried on. 'Shee! It's like he's a wrestler or something.' She thought to herself.  
  
Gina didn't say anything as she watched the fight progress. Obviously, something had to give to get out of this alive. Either G'nolga had to make a mistake, something that didn't seem likely to happen, or Luan and/or Gar would have to get desperate enough to land a powerful blow. "Psst, Brianna, we have to do something." She whispered to her youngest sibling desperately.  
  
"I know. Dang it, where's Peebochu?" She whispered, worried for her "pet".  
  
Gina frowned, wondering why Brianna was acting like that, when she glanced upwards and blinked. "Brianna! I found it." She whispered to her sister urgently.  
  
Brianna's ears perked at that. "You did?" She whispered, surprised.  
  
The shorter blonde nodded, then realized that Brianna probably couldn't see the bit-bomb without being able to see into the Ultra-violet spectrum. "Here." She whispered and let Brianna look out her glasses.  
  
Brianna gasped, her eyes widening as she saw her beloved "pet" rolling around on the ceiling. "PEEBOChu!" She nearly yelled out, if Gina hadn't put her hand over her sister's mouth.  
  
"SHH! You wanna give Peebochu's position away?!" She hissed at her sister. Honestly, Brianna could be really mature at times, but really impulsive at others.  
  
Brianna had the decency to look sheepish.  
  
(----)  
  
Grave found being this close to a high-level fight exhilarating and scary at the same time. Watching the fight as the brown haired girl and Gar kept getting back up every time G'nolga put them down, Grave nodded to herself. They seemed to be a bit tougher than her friend. 'Then again, G'nolga's not trying to put them down very hard.' Besides, Grave had seen G'nolga move faster against her friend than what she was doing with those two. It was almost as if she was playing with her opponents.  
  
Her eyes widened as Gar finally managed to land a blow on G'nolga, granted, the Dwarf blocked it, but that was still the best shot that anyone had landed on her all day.  
  
(----)  
  
G'nolga grimaced as the blocked punch actually knocked her back into the wall. It wasn't the cracked bone or the wall that bothered her too much, it was the fact that the Jagwere had managed to hit the same arm that the human boy had managed to injure in their short scrap a few days previous. She opened her eye and rolled along the wall as that girl with the numb- chucks came swinging her weapon down onto the ground as fast and hard as she could.  
  
"#$%&! We had her!" Luan swore as G'nolga crawled along the wall in a defensive position. That was their chance to get out of the situation alive and not to badly hurt, had she connected with her attack.  
  
Chuckling as she crawled against the wall and stood up, G'nolga smirked at them. "You... Dirty pair of fakers. Those loose and weak stances, the look of fear in your eyes, the sloppy attacks. They were all just an act to get me to lower my skill and abilities and not think of you as a serious threat."  
  
The two fighters went silent. Their jig was up and they both knew it. They paled as G'nolga smirked and charged at them, her weapon at the side. "A, a master technique!" Luan spoke fearfully, knowing that those moves were nearly unstoppable.  
  
"Crap! Block!" Gar didn't have a counter to the move G'nolga was using, despite being Julia's student the longest. Though, in retrospect, it probably would have been better to try and dodge the move, rather than block it as G'nolga came in and made quick work of the two by slamming their bodies with her staff.  
  
(----)  
  
From her position behind everyone, Grave wondered why those two didn't even try to dodge the attack. It was easier to dodge attacks than block them; at least, that's what Ranma had told her.  
  
Her eyes widened as Gar started to taunt G'nolga from his position on the floor. What the hell was he doing? Trying to get himself killed? G'nolga had won, if he was lucky, she wouldn't try to kill him while he was down.  
  
(----)  
  
Groaning as he ran down the hallway, Ranma could feel her close. "Grave." He whispered to himself. He knew something was wrong; he had to get to her.  
  
(----)  
  
G'nolga trembled with anger at what the Jagwere had just told her. Julia was much better than her? They wouldn't have been able to land a blow on Julia like they did with her? She didn't have the heart to finish them off? Why that stupid Werecat, she'd kill him. "GRAAAAHHH!" She yelled and lifted her weapon up high to split the Jagwere's skull in half.  
  
"CHU!!" Came a cutesy mechanical voice as a rush of air flew down from the ceiling at G'nolga's neck. The Dwarf stopped her attack as she realized that she had been had, again. She grimaced, preparing herself for the worst, when she heard a sword slice through something. She ducked and turned her head to see Rook, his sword extended through some sort of object at the end of it.  
  
Rook chuckled. "That's twice that they've almost had you, G'nolga. Perhaps your skill is slipping after all." He said, before tossing the object to the side. "Useless."  
  
"PEEBOCHU!!" Came a distraught voice from behind him. Rook glanced behind him and smirked as Brianna came rushing at him fairly fast. "YOU, OOOH! YOUR $$ IS MINE!" The Lycanthropoid threatened the Undead Knight. As soon as Brianna got into range and swung at him with a straight punch, he disappeared in a flash, and ended up behind her, the sharp edge of the sword in his left hand at her neck. "Girl, you made a mistake coming after the Macho Undead like that. Perhaps I'll drop a big elbow onto your head and split it wide open? Or maybe I'll crush your windpipe with a stiff clothesline? Or maybe..." He trailed off as his sword split into several pieces. "Or maybe I'll watch as my weapon is broken by a short and annoying Werecheetah?" He said and turned to a darkened hallway, previously unnoticed by most everyone. "I'm surprised that you'd help her?"  
  
"Believe me, you aren't the only one." Came a female voice as the person walked into view and dropped her hood, letting everyone see her face. "She's the last person I expected to save, yet I did."  
  
G'nolga frowned. She wondered what took that girl so long to get out here.  
  
Brianna's eyes widened, her anger over losing her beloved "pet" forgotten for the moment as Grave Digger stepped out of the shadows. So she had been right all along, Grave Digger was working for the bad guys.  
  
Gina paled. Brianna had explained to her that the curse was now alive and had taken a short hybrid body for itself. She remembered exactly what happened last time Grave Digger was around, before her father cured Brianna of her homicidal tendencies.  
  
Sheila, who had been sneaking up on Rook to try and freeze him before he hurt Brianna, stopped in her tracks and stared. Grave was actually helping someone? Didn't she want to kill Brianna, Britanny and Gina? At least, that's what Genn told her before she disappeared a month or so ago.  
  
Gar groaned. 'Great, Grave Digger.' He thought to himself. Just what they needed, a crazy Werecheetah with magical powers out there when several of them were hurt.  
  
Luan blinked, not really knowing what was going on, but figuring it was a bad thing. Why else would everyone act like they were acting as the short Werecat came out into their midst.  
  
Rook narrowed his eyes and teleported right in front of Grave with his remaining sword raised. "Your usefulness is over. If you're lucky, I'll bring you back as an Undead with flesh, baby." He grinned.  
  
Grave growled and charged up an aura beam. She knew that he'd probably do some damage to her, but hopefully she could take him out with her.  
  
She never had to find out.  
  
Just as Rook was about to swing his sword down, a fist impacted him in the face, sending him flying back.  
  
G'nolga blinked. How did that pup get out of his cell?  
  
The others looked on in amazement as a human male smashed his fist into Rook, sending the Ghost Knight back a ways, before he teleported and appeared on his feet. Who was this guy?  
  
Grave's eyes widened. "R, Ranma?" She asked in amazement. How'd he get out? She shook her head. That didn't matter. All that mattered was the fact that he was there right now and wasn't locked up.  
  
Rook frowned as he assessed his, soon to be dead, opponent. That blow had surprised him, if he had his instant teleport ability in his armor like he used to have, the blow would have never connected. "Brave, but foolish, boy." He said, teleporting behind Ranma and swinging down with his sword.  
  
The hairs on Ranma's neck stood straight up as that sword swung down. Quickly rolling to the side, he smirked as the sword clanged against the stone floor. He then bent backwards as Rook slashed horizontally with his sword. The Undead Knight was in no way unskilled, but there was a small problem with his teleporting power, he got too reliant on it, and found that the human was moving around his blows reminiscent to another human that he encountered over 200 years ago. "So, I was right, he did take on other students. Even if it only took him 200 years to do so." Rook muttered to no one in particular as the human lashed out with a kick. Here was his chance to get the rather nimble and quick human. Though, he never moved this way when he fought G'nolga a few days previous. Rook idly wondered what changed as he teleported behind Ranma.  
  
Rook wasn't the only one. G'nolga narrowed her eyes, it was almost as if the boy had increased his abilities seemingly over-night. Or he had a hidden level of power that was just waiting to be woken up, and their little scrap a few days before had forced him to do so.  
  
Grave's eyes widened as she saw Ranma move. 'Ju, just like when we met.' She thought to herself, remembering what he had done to those bandits that had attacked him.  
  
Growling as his punch missed, Ranma had to flatten himself to the ground to avoid a sword poke from behind him.  
  
G'nolga frowned. Things were getting out of hand fast. If something wasn't done soon, all their hard work would be meaningless.  
  
On Earth... [14]  
  
Soun looked at Genma. "Are you sure that this will work?" He asked seriously.  
  
Genma nodded. "Yes. When I say these words, we'll get my son back." Actually, the bald martial artist wasn't totally sure that it would work, but it was always better to sound like you knew what was going on.  
  
Soun nodded. "Go ahead." Though, he stepped a few feet back, just in case. Thankfully, his daughters weren't home at the moment.  
  
Genma cleared his throat. "Meringoth, gorentei, mostegoth merante. Bring Ranma back to me! Gennesorth, merante, gesevor!" He called out in the strange language that was on the scroll. Hoping beyond hope that it would work. [15]  
  
For a moment, there was nothing. Then the scroll began to glow an emerald green, before a beam of light shot up into the air a short ways, stopping just above the house, green waves of energy rippling outwards, turning the sky into a pond for a moment before everything went back to normal.  
  
Soun blinked. "Saotome? Was that supposed to happen?" He sweat-dropped as Genma shrugged. The Tendo patriarch sighed. "Well, I guess we lost him then." Damn, and there went the union of the schools too.  
  
Genma frowned. He picked up the scroll and was about to say something, when the piece of paper in his hands turned to dust. Genma's eyes widened. "Oh no." He couldn't remember the spell's name even if he tried. And besides, the scroll had the magic in it, not him. Now what was he going to do?  
  
Back on Jade...  
  
"RANMA!" Grave cried out as she saw that bastard Undead stab his sword into Ranma's right lung. The fight seemed to be going in Ranma's favor, until that bastard had pulled a sneaky move and teleported to the same place as he was attacked.  
  
Rook smirked. "You put up a good fight, but I know your style, punk! All I had to do was trick you into thinking I only teleported behind you to get you in the front, oooh yeah!" He crowed and twisted the sword in the human's lung, forcing him to his knees.  
  
Ranma growled the pain was intense. Still, he had to get out of this situation, or he'd be dead. Glancing upwards, he punched at the armored fool, causing him and the sword to disappear. "Heh, glad I was right." He muttered to himself and fell onto his face. The red ichor of his blood spilling out onto the floor.  
  
Smirking as he stood above the fallen human, Rook had his sword upraised. The fight had lasted for a bit, at least fifteen minutes, but in the end, the human ultimately failed. "So l, long... What the?" He asked, his armor frosting over and being encased in ice. "I, I can't move."  
  
Sheila had a nasty smirk on her face as she held her sword up against Rook's back. "I'm glad he had you distracted long enough for me to generate a freeze-field and freeze you." Grinning, Sheila grabbed Rook by his shoulder and slammed him against the ground, shattering his body. After doing so, the Jagwere slumped against the ground, glad that the creep was finished. Now all they had to worry about was G'nolga.  
  
"NO!!" The head of the Undead cried out, as his body broke apart.  
  
Watching this, Luan nodded, glad that her parents' murderer was finished, even if she didn't land the final blow.  
  
Gar coughed from his position on the floor as he tried to move to a sitting position. That kid had put up a good fight, even if it was mostly dodging. It just wasn't enough against Rook though.  
  
G'nolga snarled. "THAT'S IT! IT'S OVER!" She yelled.  
  
"I COULDN'T POSSIBLY AGREE MORE!" Came the smug voice of Gina Diggers as she held a small control panel in her hands, with a floating plasma cannon right next to her. "I should warn you. This cannon is programmed to fire at any movement over thirty-five m.p.h."  
  
G'nolga took a step to the right, only to see the cannon follow her movement precisely. She then took a step to the left, only to have the cannon follow her again. Then it dawned on her. "That's technology isn't it? Dwarven steel has no effect on it like it would against magic."  
  
Gina grinned and nodded. "You are so right."  
  
G'nolga rolled her eyes and turned away. "This fight is over. Continuing now would be pointless. Now, get off of my property!" She commanded as she walked away, sparing a glance at the kid who impressed her, who was now being held by that small Werecheetah.  
  
Brianna sighed in relief. Now they could relax a little. Well, she could completely relax once she took care of Grave Digger. Turning to face her other half, she blinked as the kid, Ranma she thought, started glowing an emerald green, as well as Grave Digger, since the short Werecheetah was holding onto him. "What the?" She asked no one in particular as the two suddenly disappeared.  
  
Sheila blinked a few times as she stared at the place where the two were a moment ago. "A teleport spell?" But... Where would they go? The human was hurt, and Grave was wanted for some questions.  
  
Grave blinked as the surroundings around her became clearer. "What the? Where are we?"  
  
"Oh, hello, who are you?" Came a voice from behind Grave.  
  
Grave turned her head and saw... [16]  
  
Preview of the next chapter: "Hey, this is Grave Digger. Well, I hope you all enjoyed that last part. Anyway, in the next chapter, you'll find out who came across Ranma and me. Hopefully my problems on Jade are over. But we'll all find out soon enough, next time, on Grave's New Life."  
  
[1] G'nolga's talking about the Renewing Breath technique that Julia used to regain her health to fight against her mother. Since Julia was back to 100% health, or close to it, and Brunhildagard Brigand was banged up and tired from the fight, Julia's mom gave up.  
  
[2] Gag in revulsion here people. If you couldn't figure it out, Rook's been watching Austin Powers.  
  
[3] Rook's a pervert, what do you think he's going to notice?  
  
[4] Sheila's good looking in either form, in my opinion. (Human or hybrid) If she didn't have her birth defect, I bet she would have to beat every male Werecat off with a stick, or in her case, her sword.  
  
[5] Check the prologue, the info's right there. The end result of Grave and Brianna's fight was severe damage and destruction in Seer's Hamlet.  
  
[6] I apologize to female readers, but I could see Happosai having something like that.  
  
[7] This alludes to one of the earlier chapters. Unfortunately, I can't remember which one, since my computer crashed, I lost all of my writings and I have limited Internet access now. Gotta love public libraries. (Yeah right.)  
  
[8] Don't complain about continuation errors here, I've gone back and fixed the earlier chapters.  
  
[9] Hey, Genma's not a TOTAL idiot. Don't let what you read in other people's fanfiction make up your mind about how certain characters act.  
  
[10] Thought I forgot about Ranma's partially controlled Neko-Ken, huh? I got Ranma's current control of the Neko-Ken from watching a recent episode of InuYasha that was on a few weeks ago, when InuYasha took on the Elder Dragon that ended up killing his father and how he had partial control over his full-Demon form.  
  
[11] Too much is happening at once. That's why I had to have a small bit of a flashback.  
  
[12] Reference to an earlier chapter. Brianna has her pure blonde hair here, but she still has her eye stripe over her left eye. Not like it was in the comics. What can I say? I like Brianna with her eye stripe.  
  
[13] Check the prologue if you aren't sure what she's talking about.  
  
[14] I'm a stinker, aren't I?  
  
[15] If you can't tell, I made the spell up.  
  
[16] I'm a REAL stinker for leaving you hanging.  
  
This is the longest piece of fiction that I've written anywhere, I think. I hope that this was detailed enough for all of you. You greedy readers you. By the way, that's not a bad thing, being a greedy reader.  
  
Tell me what you think of this. Flames, praises, comments, critiques, criticisms, all welcome.  
  
As for Kasumi, and why I did what I did with her in this story. I always felt that she got the short end of the stick in the series, especially after she dropped to a background character. So, pardon me for not making her into a fanon character that's an airhead and says "Oh my!" all the time. Shrug  
  
Anyway, who should Grave and Ranma drop in on? Let me know. I have some ideas, but let me know what you people think. 


	14. 13

Grave's New Life

Chapter Thirteen

Disclaimer: Ranma is owned by Rumiko Takahashi-sama. As are all the characters from the series Ranma 1/2. Grave Digger is owned by the High Lord Fred Perry. As are all the characters from Gold Digger. All other series are cameo appearances and references only and belong to their respective owners.

Okay, I've said the disclaimer, now, back, back you evil lawyers you! BACK I SAY! Pulls out a can of Raid, sprays the lawyers, blinks as they start dropping dead. Well, what do you know? They ARE cockroaches!

No, I'm not back totally yet. I'm just getting this out for all you fans who enjoy the series.

* * *

Grave blinked as she saw a woman, who was about five-foot-five to five-foot-six with red hair that was done up in a short style, bright blue eyes, the woman was a little taller than her friend was in his male form and she was wearing a blue robe that hugged her body. 'Isn't that a kimono?' Grave thought to herself, while blinking.

The woman blinked at seeing such a young-looking girl with fur on her face, before noticing the boy next to her. "Oh dear, here, let me help you." She said as she rushed out of the large house she was in to lift up the bleeding boy off the ground on his right side.

Grave gasped, feeling stupid for forgetting her friend, even for a moment. "Oh, shoot!" She said and threw Ranma's left arm over her shoulder.

"G, Grave what..?" Ranma muttered, before groaning as he felt his right lung burn as though it was fire.

Said girl nearly started crying as Ranma coughed up some blood. "Shh, don't talk. Don't talk." The Werecheetah whimpered out as she walked with the woman into the house.

The woman raised an eyebrow. She had first assumed that the girl was the cause of the boy's condition, but seeing how she was acting at that moment, it tossed out her original ideas. "Excuse me for being blunt, but we should really get this young man into the house." The girl nodded as they walked into the house. "I didn't catch your name there..." She trailed off, hoping the girl would answer the unasked question.

"Grave. Grave Digger." The girl in the hooded robe said to her.

The woman raised an eyebrow at the name. That wasn't exactly a common name anywhere. "I see. Well, Grave Digger, my name is Nodoka."

Grave nodded as they went into the house.

A few minutes later in the guestroom...

Nodoka frowned as she lifted the boy's torso so she could wrap the bandage around him without stop. This would have been easier if she could sit him down, but hey, that happens when one's unconscious.

Grave sighed. She could have healed Ranma, now that she thought about it. But she had been so upset that she couldn't focus on her magical energies in the right way. Still it was nice that the nice lady was trying to help her friend out. The short Werecheetah-looking girl looked around the room. There wasn't much in the room. It was mostly spacious, with a door to the hallway at one end, and a small window across the room from the door. The walls were a light blue color; the floor had a soft teal colored carpet that completely covered it.

"Well, this is about as much as I can do at this time." Nodoka commented, before laying the boy down on the gray futon she had gotten ready for him in a short period of time.

"Thank you." The girl in the hooded cloak said to her, obvious relief in the girl's voice for the little bit that the older woman had done for the boy. Nodoka smiled at her and lay the boy down onto the futon, before laying a light blanket over him, no need to aggravate the wounds after all. What Nodoka found curious was how the girl didn't seem to want to move. The girl just stared at the raven haired youth; her posture was slumped and relaxed. Even with the purple cloak on, Nodoka could easily see that she wasn't going to be going anywhere for awhile.

"Are you okay, child?" The redheaded woman asked, several instincts rising up within her, she was a mother after all, and one that followed tradition and honor very closely. Even if she was lenient in some cases and had a slightly warped sense of honor, she followed her honor code as strictly as possible. Nodoka sighed as the girl wouldn't answer. The fact was made worse by how all she would do was stare at the boy. Standing up, Nodoka felt that the girl probably wanted some privacy. "Well, when you want to speak, I'll be in the living room." She said, before leaving the room and closing the door slightly.

After the woman was gone, Grave looked out the corner of her eye to the door and let out a breath that she didn't know she was holding. It was weird, to the smaller Lycanthropoid. She had almost expected the woman to lash out at her, blaming her for what had happened to Ranma. She blinked a couple of times, before yawning. "Tired." She mumbled to herself. She hadn't gotten any sleep in fifteen hours. Stretching her arms above her head, she looked around the room. She didn't think that the nice woman would let her stay for too long, and she didn't want to sleep outside. "So, there's only one place for me to sleep." She muttered to herself, not at all unpleased with the thought, before crawling over to Ranma's left side, his undamaged side, before pulling her hooded cloak over her head and tossing it against the wall, before lying down next to Ranma, curling her body next to his as she started to drift off to sleep. At least things would hopefully get better. "Ranma, I'm sorry." She whispered, as she drifted off to sleep. She just hoped she didn't get any bad dreams.

A few moments after she fell asleep, she rolled slightly so that she was facing Ranma more fully, her left arm going across his upper chest, while her left leg moved on top of his legs. Unconsciously, Grave Digger moved her tail from behind her, to lightly cover Ranma's waist.

Meanwhile, back on Jade...

Sitting in her lounge room, with her thumbs rubbing the temples of her forehead, the redheaded former Armsmaster looked at the people that sat in front of her. Her daughters, Gina and Brianna looks nervous, not that she could blame them, her one-time student, Gar wasn't there, but rather at the healer's clinic. It was to be expected, considering how much damage he had taken from G'nolga. Even though he was a Jagwere, G'nolga's weapon had Dwarven Steel on the tips of it, which messed up magic, including a Werecreature's ability to heal. Luan, her blond haired, soon-to-be student wasn't there either. She had to go with Gar to the healer's clinic. From what she heard those two do, she had to admit, she was slightly proud of them, being able to get G'nolga's guard down far enough to nearly defeat her. She looked at her husband, the only other person in the room with her, to see what his thoughts were on the current matter. "So..." She began, trying to make sense of everything that she had heard. "While you two," she said, nodding to Gina and Brianna, "were with Luan and heading to the tavern to see me, you managed to see G'nolga as she came walking out. And when you did that, you decided to see what was going on and followed her. And then, when you got to the Armsmaster palace, you saw Sheila fighting against Rook's mercenary that used to be called Hanzo and some Undead Knights. Am I right so far?" She asked with a sigh.

Gina nodded. Thankfully, Brianna was both upset because of what had happened to her little "pet" and the fact that the little homicidal and evil version of her showed up and actually saved her life. "Yeah, then Sheila got distracted by Brianna and got knocked out. We went into the palace to get all the information we could that would hopefully get G'nolga ousted as Armsmaster, but instead we ran into Rook, and then G'nolga showed up, and everything went to hell in a hand basket."

Julia frowned lightly at the language used. "Shortly after G'nolga showed up, Gar did and he and Luan both took on G'nolga, seemingly putting up an even fight, even if they were getting tossed around like rag dolls. After G'nolga decided to get serious and beat Gar and Luan to a pulp, Brianna's invention tried to blow her up, but Rook stopped it, causing Brianna to try and beat him up, only to have him teleport and try to slice her head off." She said, sighing. That was exactly what she was afraid of too. Dang it, why did Brianna and Gina skip her self-defense courses? Julia got up off her chair and started pacing the room. "And just before anything else happened, Brianna's evil side decided to show herself and break Rook's sword, thereby saving your life. Rook took exception to this and teleported over to her, preparing to strike her down. Am I right?"

Again, Gina nodded. "Yeah mom. After that, some guy that I've never seen before came rushing out of nowhere and smashed Rook in the helmet, knocking him back. The two fought for awhile, until Rook managed to get behind him, stabbing him in the lung with his sword."

Theo, Julia's husband with gray hair and a goatee, then spoke up. "And Sheila mentioned to me that shortly there-after, the two of them managed to teleport away somewhere." Where that was, no one was certain. And he highly doubted that G'nolga would let him in to see if he could scan the spell and find out where they left.

Brianna spoke up, her voice soft, hinting at the state her mind was in at that moment. "I, I've never seen her look so worried for someone before." She said, mostly to herself. "She looked like Britanny did when she was worrying about Stryyp after he went to Aebra." Who was that guy? He looked a little younger than most of the guys she was interested in. It was ironic for her to think of someone as too young, considering that she was barely three years old chronologically. From what she knew of Grave Digger, that evil Werecat didn't care about anyone but herself. But something had changed, what it was, Brianna wasn't sure.

The Arch Mage sighed, looking down at the ground for a moment while he collected his thoughts. He lifted his head up after a few minutes and looked at his family. "Any suggestions on what we should do about this? I could have the Mage Council look in on this, or even the Elders of the Retreat to see if she's there or not." For some odd reason, Theo didn't think that they'd find Grave Digger in either of those places.

"Wouldn't she stick out like a sore thumb?" Gina asked. From what she had learned from Gar, nearly everyone knew that the Werecheetahs were a nearly dead race.

Theo nodded, obviously thinking the same thing. "I'll ask the Mage Council and the Elders of the Retreat to have their people keep an eye out for a short Werecheetah." Britanny didn't come to Jade very often, or the Retreat, so they didn't have to worry about people getting the two mixed up.

"What if she's on Earth?" Julia asked. That would have been the worst-case scenario. A powerful Werecat mage, especially one who wasn't disciplined and had little restraint, was a very dangerous thing in the best of situations. She didn't want to think about it if some religious nut or a witch hunter came across the girl.

No one said anything. If Grave really was on Earth, the chances of them finding her were slim at best.

To be continued...

* * *

Preview of next chapter: "Hey, it's me, Grave Digger! Well, now you know what happened to me and Ranma. We're going to have to deal with some repercussions soon. And no, they aren't bad. So, see you next time, on Grave's New Life."

Notes: Heh, yeah, I'm back, somewhat. This was short, I know, but I had to get it out to get this out. It's more of a filler chapter and a quick recap of everything that just happened.

It's revealed in the color series of Gold Digger that Dwarven Steel DOES in fact mess with Lycanthrope healing.

Comments? Questions? Suggestions? Let me know.


	15. 14

Grave's New Life

Chapter 14

Disclaimer: Same drill as before. Ranma ½ is owned by Rumiko Takahashi-sama and Gold Digger is owned by High Lord Fred Perry. Any other series and cameos that appear are owned by their respective owners. So, I don't own them, I never have and never will. Just writing for my own fun. Now you stupid lawyers, prepare for oblivion! Summons an army of mother-in-laws to deal with the lawyers GET THEM! They married your babies!

* * *

If there was one thing about training in the martial arts ones whole life, it was the ability to control your Ki, even at a basic level, and manipulate it towards healing nearly anything. Even wounds that would leave most people in bed for months. Groaning, Ranma cracked his eyes open and sat up, or tried to sit up, as he felt a weight on his shoulders, around his neck. Blinking his eyes, the pigtailed martial artist looked to the side and was surprised to see Grave sleeping next to him, her body pressed up and rubbing against his body.

The cheetah-girl was practically glued to Ranma's side. Her eyes were tightly shut as she slept; her body trembling a little.

Ranma blinked, what was going on here? Last thing he remembered was that bastard Rook sticking a sword into his chest and... He then blinked. "Rook!" He hissed, before looking around the room. He then blinked again as he didn't recognize anything. "What the?" He muttered. Where was he? This didn't look like the prison that he was in on Jade.

Ranma's movements and speaking awoke the little Lycnathropoid. Sitting up quickly, Grave was relieved to see Ranma was awake... But still... "Ranma!" The girl cried out. "You should be resting!"

Ranma winced. The way she was yelling was way too early in the morning for this. "No, I'll be fine." He lied. His chest still hurt like a sunnavabitch. "I'm not bleeding anymore, if that's what you're worried about." While he wasn't sure about that as a fact, he was reasonably sure that his body had healed enough for him to move around. It would probably take a few more days before he could do much more than that, though.

"You sure?" Grave asked, her eyes misty with unshed tears. "Ranma, I'm so, so sorry this happened." Sniffling, the Lycanthropoid hugged onto Ranma's side. "This is all my fault."

Ranma winced, and not from the slight pain that her hugging caused him. The sight of her face, so full of sadness, crystalline tears threatening to break free and run down her face. Was he the cause of them? "Grave, you don't need to cry for me." He said, hoping that would help her out.

Sniffling, Grave shook her head. "But... But... It's my fault you got hurt." She sniffed more, trying to keep from sobbing. "I mean, I helped those meanies. And when you got free, you got hurt trying to help me..."

Ranma sighed. Damn, Grave had to keep blaming herself on this matter. "Grave, please... I'm okay." He said, smiling slightly. "Even if they hadn't captured me, I would have tried to save you, no matter what." She was Ranma's best friend, why wouldn't he try and save her?

Grave shook her head, now tears started to roll down her cheeks. "But you should have left me. I've been nothing but trouble for you Ranma... Trouble that keeps getting worse..."

Ranma frowned and grabbed Grave, before shoving her away. "Listen to me, Grave." He said, more forcefully than he meant to say to the Lycanthropoid. "Just because I keep running into trouble doesn't mean I don't want you as a friend of mine. So I got into more trouble for trying to save you?" He then shrugged. "Big deal." At least for him it was no big deal. Why did everyone else have the same hang-ups about saving other people? "I would have done it for you, even if I didn't really know you." He meant it too. He didn't care who a person was, everyone needed help sometimes. Everyone but him of course.

Now the tears were just pouring down the sides of Grave's face. Hugging onto Ranma tightly, the Lycanthropoid buried her face in her shoulder, thanking Ranma and apologizing to him again and again and again.

Ranma sighed, and hugged Grave back. No matter how many times he said it was alright, she just continued to cry and apologize to him. "Grave... You're my friend." That's all that really mattered to him, not much else really. Other than martial arts, that was the most important thing.

Finally, after a long while, Grave started to calm down, her tears finally having been used up for the time being. Raising her head, Grave looked into Ranma's blue eyes with her own puffy red ones, even though they were normally green and spoke. "I promise, Ranma..." The girl hiccupped. "I promise I'll make it up to you somehow."

Ranma sighed, but nodded. It was weird. Having someone owe him something. He was used to owing people something, usually after he and his old man had to escape from a town after they had wore out their welcome. Even after all his time with Grave, he was still used to having to take what was his, even if it was to get by. "No, it's alright." He said, before hugging her lightly.

Hugging back, Grave just felt so relieved. She finally allowed herself to accept Ranma wasn't mad. And he had forgiven her! He! Forgave!! Her!!

Ranma nodded to himself as Grave started to calm down. At least now things would hopefully get better. He blushed as his stomach started growling, demanding sustenance. He chuckled. "It's been awhile since I've ate."

Grave nodded her head. "I'll go to the kitchen and get you some breakfast!"

Ranma nodded. "Right." He said, before starting to get up. "I'll come out and eat, okay?"

"NO!" Grave shouted a bit more forcefully then intended. "You should still be resting. I'll get food for you. I promise."

Ranma nodded his head. He wasn't an invalid, just injured. But people always seemed to think that an injured person was an invalid.

Smiling, Grave nuzzled Ranma a moment before getting up and walking over to the door. Stopping at the entrance to the room, Grave told Ranma, "Be back soon!" And then she stepped out, closing the door gently behind her.

Ranma blinked, before rubbing his neck. The feel of fur like that was unique, to put it mildly.

(----)

Get food and make breakfast, how hard was that? For most people, it wouldn't be much of a problem, unfortunately, for Grave Digger, her only memories of making food was from two people, neither of which could make a decent meal that didn't require sandwiches or instant food from the microwave. Ranma had been able to make campfire food decently. Even he admitted that it wasn't as good as it could have been. It probably had to do with the fact that there weren't a whole lot of normal foods to eat on Jade. At least not through the areas that they traveled anyway. But that wasn't the only problem Grave had. Nope, the other problem that she had was the fact that she didn't know her way around the kitchen at all.

Sighing as she opened a cabinet door, Grave tried to find something, anything that would work for breakfast. She blinked as she came upon a gray clay vase with a pull-up top on it. Shrugging, Grave picked it up and opened it, hoping to see something, cookies, candy, she wasn't sure. 'Coins?' She thought, surprised. Why the heck would anyone have gold-looking coins in a clay vase was beyond her. The only reason that Grave Digger knew they weren't real gold coins was because the vase was far to light for them to be real gold. Still, she wondered what they were for. 1

Shrugging, and not really knowing what they were used for, Grave placed the vase on the edge of the counter, before reaching back into the cabinets, hoping to find something that could be of some use to her.

As she stood on her toes to see up a little higher, Grave frowned. It wouldn't take much for her to levitate upwards. But there were a couple of things stopping her. First off, while she could do so, she wasn't sure if that nice woman knew about magic and didn't really want to explain why she could float in midair. Strangely, the thought about that nice woman seeing her without her cloak on didn't bother her any. The second reason she didn't use any magic was to keep herself hidden from a certain Arch Mage. Grave didn't know how far her "father's" scanning abilities were, and she didn't want to find out by using magic. If it was necessary, she would, otherwise, she'd not use any at all. She didn't want to go back to where she was before. The cheetah-looking girl shivered fiercely. She'd freeze to death if she ever went back to being a part of Brianna's mind again.

She frowned and lifted her left leg up to climb up onto the counter, only to watch, transfixed, as her knee bumped the clay vase off the edge of the counter and onto the floor with a crash. The little Lycanthropoid winced as the clay vase shattered into tiny pieces, and the coins scattered out in several directions. "Dammit." She muttered, before bending down to pick the coins up. Thankfully, the coins didn't scatter too far apart, still, they were numerous enough to keep her from grabbing them all at one time and placing them on top of the counter. All she wanted to do was get some breakfast for her friend, was that so wrong? 'Apparently so.' Grave thought to herself bitterly. She sighed as she picked up the coins. Although, she couldn't help but wonder why anyone would have coins that looked like real gold, yet were obviously fake; Grave shrugged it off and started placing coins up on top of the counter.

After a few minutes, Grave Digger smiled as she grabbed the last coin with her left hand. At least cleaning up the clay bits would be fairly easy. Reaching her right hand up to grab the edge of the counter, she got to one knee, before she heard a gasp. Turning to her left side, she blinked upon seeing that nice lady again, only this time, she was dressed in a light blue bathrobe that was wrapped around her tightly. "Um, look. I'm sorry about the vase." She said. When the woman gave no response, Grave whimpered slightly, figuring that the woman was really mad at her.

Her fears were dispelled a moment later when the redheaded woman cried out. "KAWAII!" She cried, before smiling brightly, and rushing forward, pulling Grave into a tight hug. "A lucky Neko-tama!"

As she gasped in surprise at the very powerful and seemingly desperate hug, Grave blinked, unsure of what was really going on.

(----) 2

Padding down the hallway in some slippers and a light blue bathrobe, Nodoka Saotome rubbed her eyes, trying to dispel the sleepiness that she felt. Yesterday was slightly unusual. It wasn't often that two people appeared out of nowhere and one of them bloody and hurt to boot. Oh well, she'd figure out what to do with them today. She doubted that the young one that wasn't hurt was in any condition to answer, being seriously worried about her friend. 'I was like that, back when Genma and I were still dating.' She thought to herself with a sigh. What she wouldn't give to see her son again. Even if only for a little while. The Saotome Matriarch sighed, who knew that waiting ten years could be so long? On paper, it wasn't THAT bad, but in reality... Nodoka sighed, irritably.

She blinked upon seeing the light on in the kitchen. She was sure she had turned it off last night. Frowning lightly, but not overly concerned with burglars, since Nerima, and various other wards, didn't have a whole lot of problems with house crime for one reason or another. Though, Nodoka really didn't know why that was. True, there were a bunch of martial artists in the area, most of them with weird and unusual styles of fighting, but she highly doubted that they were the reason crime, at least most normal crime, was so low.

Nodoka was right, to an extent. It wasn't just the martial artists in Nerima that kept the place so safe. The fact that there were Demons, monsters, martial artists, aliens, machines and whatever else that frequented the various wards of Tokyo was what kept most normal criminals in line. The Yakuza were still fairly bold, but then again, they were the Yakuza. 3

Peering inside the kitchen, Nodoka blinked as she saw someone, a little shorter than her, kneeling down and picking up coins. Nodoka blinked as she took in the appearance of the person before her. Other than the fact that the girl was a little shorter than her, she had hair that went just past her shoulders, a skin-tight purple body suit. Nodoka really didn't approve of something so scandalous, even though it covered the person's body, it really didn't leave much to the imagination. She blinked as she saw a long, golden and black spotted appendage coming out of the girl's backside. The redheaded woman gasped as she realized that not only was that appendage a tail, but it was similar to a cat's tail.

When she gasped, the person, who had been reaching up to the counter, stiffened and turned around, letting Nodoka see the girl's green eyes. If Nodoka had to describe them, she'd say the eyes were nearly feral. But that wasn't on the redhead's mind at that moment. The way the person, a girl Nodoka realized, was kneeling, with her right hand up and her left hand holding a coin over her belly brought back some childhood memories and old beliefs. She didn't hear the girl say anything, but rather, the older woman was comparing her to a statue that she had seen many times throughout her life at New Years.

After mentally comparing the statue in her head with the girl in front of her, Nodoka came to one conclusion. "KAWAII!" She cried out, smiling brightly, before rushing up to the Cheetah-looking girl, picking her up and hugging her tightly. "A lucky Neko-tama!" She couldn't believe it. Finally, something that could bring her fondest wish to life was here. "WHEE!" Nodoka smiled and carried on like a young girl in an amusement park. Spinning around and around with Grave in her arms, she couldn't help but giggle. "You finally came to grant my wish, didn't you?" She blinked as the "Neko-tama" wasn't answering and stopped spinning. "You okay?" She asked, worried that her wish wouldn't come true.

Grave shook her head to dispel the dizziness she felt. "Um, yeah." She mumbled. Though, what a Neko-tama was, she wasn't sure. Heck, the only reason she was able to speak Japanese at all was because of that translation spell that had been cast on her awhile back. "But... What wish?" She asked, not knowing what the woman meant.

Nodoka smiled brightly once more. "Oh, don't be bashful. You know that my wish has always been to see how fine a young man my son Ranma has grown up to be." The Neko-tama had to be playing games with her. All Neko-tamas knew what a person's wish was. That was why they were sent to people, to grant their wishes, they were like genies, in that manner, at least according to legend.

"Wait, I didn't..." Grave broke off, blinking as the woman's words came back to her. "Wait, Ranma? As in Ranma Saotome?" That was the only Ranma she knew of, and thinking on it, the woman did have darker red hair than Ranma's female form, but their eyes were very similar.

"WAI! You DO know!" Nodoka exclaimed giddily, before hugging Grave tightly, nearly suffocating the little Lycanthropoid.

"Ah! Aiiir!" Grave gasped out, her arms flailing around Nodoka's sides.

Nodoka blinked and then blushed slightly. "So sorry, dear." It wouldn't be a good thing to accidentally kill a lucky Neko-tama. She waited until the Neko-tama caught her breath and coughed a couple of times. "You know my son, don't you, Neko-tama?" She asked, hope flooding her words. Her smile got bigger when said "Neko-tama" nodded. "Where is he?" Oh, she couldn't wait. Had Genma lived up to his promises for once?

Grave nodded slowly. "Uh huh... You, um, met him last night. He was the person you wrapped up in bandages." She said, with her head lowered. What kind of friend let their best and only friend's get hurt like that?

Nodoka went silent for a moment, taking that in. "WAI!" She exclaimed happily. Grave snapped her head up, confusedly. The Lycanthropoid was about to ask what was going on, when Nodoka spoke up again. "I haven't seen my son for ten years!" She exclaimed, her joy lowering when she admitted that.

Blinking a few times, Grave thought about that, and some of the discussions that she and Ranma had had in the past. "Wait, that's right." She gasped and snapped her fingers. "Ranma said that he didn't even remember his mother." She winced when Nodoka started to look extremely saddened at hearing that. "But, he's really nice. And I'm sure he wants to get to know you some more."

Nodoka snapped her head up so fast that Grave wondered if whiplash was real or not. "Would you mind... May I see my son again?" She asked suddenly.

Grave blinked again. She had been doing that a lot recently. "Um, yeah. He's awake. I had come to the kitchen to get him some food." The next thing Grave knew was weightlessness for a moment as Nodoka took off out of the kitchen. A moment later, she fell to the floor with a thud and landed on her rear. "Owwies." She whimpered, before standing up and rubbing her abused posterior. A moment later, Grave smiled slightly. 'If that nice woman is Ranma's mother, then he and I can stay here.' It wasn't just the fact that she could stay here that was good for her. The fact that she had a place to hide from her "family" was another thing that got to her. 4

(----)

In China, a meeting was taking place. One that had an entire village behind it.

Literally in this case as a five-foot-six, buxom, long purple haired, red eyed sixteen year Chinese girl with her hair done up in a couple of balls on the top of her head, and the rest of her hair done up in a long pony-tail. On the ends of her hair were some small metal balls that could be mistaken for bells. She was wearing a blue Chinese silk dress, one that was extremely short and showing off her legs, while hugging her body tightly. On her back was an over-sized backpack as she ran through the woods, chasing, what looked to be an extremely wrinkled lump wearing green robes. Looking closer, instead of a lump, one would say that the creature was actually some sort of small gargoyle. Two feet tall, long white hair, bulging eyes, extremely wrinkled skin that was so pale that one could mistake her for a ghost or a wraith. The creature spoke up in Chinese. "Hurry along, Xian Puu." The voice was crackled and dry, sounding similar to sandpaper when it was crinkled up.

Behind them as they ran, one could see quite a few buildings that were grouped closely together in the form of their village.

The girl, now known as Xian Puu nodded. "Yes, Great-grandmother." She said, before picking up her pace to catch up to the old woman. "So, what did the council decide?" Why it had taken a couple of weeks to make the decision was beyond her.

The old woman didn't answer right away; instead she ran a couple dozen more yards before speaking up again. "Even though you didn't bring the body of the girl back, the fact that you managed to mess up, what appeared to be a teleport spell means that the girl is probably as good as dead."

The forest around the two was nothing but a blur to even the most skilled of eyes, at the speeds they were traveling. "However, because we cannot confirm a kill, I shall accompany you to Japan."

Xian Puu blinked. "Japan? Why that small island?"

"The girl was Japanese. So we assume that she's there. We will search the island for a place where the girl can be." The old woman thought about it for a moment and nodded. "More than likely a dojo." She looked back at Xian Puu, before jumping up and landing on the girl's backpack. "Where that is, I'm not sure. If we find her, then we'll kill her off. If we don't find her, then we'll assume that she's dead."

Xian Puu nodded. "Of course, Great-grandmother." She said, respectfully.

* * *

Preview of Next Chapter: "Hey, it's me, Ranma Saotome. Okay, so now we have those crazy Amazons to deal with soon enough. We'll be skipping ahead a little." 

"Is that all you're going to say, Ranma?"

"Not much else to say, Grave. The writer lost the script for the next part."

"Hmm... True."

Notes and some personal thoughts: Okay, thought I should put some notes here, mostly because I don't have anything better to do with my time. (Sheeyeah right.)

Anyway, some people may wonder why I chose to write this. The reason I did was very simple, I wanted to. Between Real Life, and the writings that I do on the Anime Addventure, I felt this story was starting to get neglected. I do hope you can forgive me for it. Real Life's a pain in the ass.

What else? Oh yeah, the REAL reason why this fic is getting out slower is because of ONE little, TINY, small reason really, I have another project in the works. Not going to say what it is, or give any clues to it. Other than it's huge. It took me over a month to get it as far as it is now.

1. Was told that this has some special significance to the Japanese at New Years. They use these coins to make wishes, or so I've heard.

2. Normally, I don't like doing this, showing one scene, then going back and showing the scene again through someone else's eyes. But it helps sometimes.

3. Don't expect characters from other series to pop up for no reason. Though, I might have Nuku Nuku show up for fun. Shrug It's just an idea in my head. It may not happen.

4. Don't expect me to do an emotional reunion scene. Sorry. I MIGHT do it. But for right now, I'm not going to do one.

Sigh I think I may have painted myself into a corner. Shrug I'll see what I can do with this right now.

Grr... FFnet takes away a LOT of my formatting. Oh well. Sorry about that people.


	16. 15

Grave's New Life

Chapter 15

Disclaimer: Shoot the moon! Shoot the moon! Shoot the moon! What? You never played Pinochle before? Okay, okay. Standard disclaimer applies here. Rumiko Takahashi-Sama owns Ranma 1/2, High Lord Fred Perry owns Gold Digger. All other series and references that may or may not show up belong to their respective owners. If I'm making money off of this, it's news to me. Cuz I'm broke right now and I haven't received any word about getting paid.

Special thanks go out to John Colandrea for his help on this chapter with various paragraphs that were giving me some trouble.

* * *

Four days later...

Sitting on a chair that was on the porch to the back yard, Grave Digger, dressed in a loose red t-shirt and tight blue shorts, thankfully positioned so she didn't have to worry about her tail getting crimped on her, looked out blankly into the yard as Ranma did some low-level katas. Not that she really knew what his high-level katas were, but she figured that the basic movements that he was doing wasn't considered high level martial arts. She was thankful, to say the very least, that the nice woman, Nodoka she reminded herself, decided to let her stay. 'That's... Putting it mildly.' She thought to herself.

Flashback to two days ago...

"Nonsense, Neko-tama." The redheaded woman, in a light green kimono said slightly flippantly. The two were in Nodoka's bedroom, with the Catgirl in nothing but her white underwear, standing in front of a full-body mirror. "Why, I can't let the one person who brought my son back to me after so many years wear just one thing while she stays here." Even lucky Neko-Tamas needed different things to wear every day. Nodoka then smiled at her guest slightly. "Besides, my son told me how you were with him for the past couple of months." Well, Ranma hadn't said specifically how long Grave had traveled with him, but had merely said that it was at least a month. Nodoka naturally assumed that it was around a couple of months.

Grave Digger sighed. One thing that she had learned during the last couple of days was that this woman's personality was quite domineering, even if she really didn't try to be, well, that and the fact that the woman seemed to have nothing BUT Kimonos to wear. "Sure thing." She said finally. It was just easier to agree with the woman than to waste time arguing. At least Grave could use this as an excuse to get free clothing.

Nodoka smiled even brighter at that. "Well then," she started before holding up a measuring tape, "let's get your measurements so I know exactly what to buy."

Grave rolled her eyes, but held up her arms and let Nodoka wrap the measuring tape around her body in various places to figure out the size of clothing that she would need to wear.

End Flashback...

The small Werecheetah-girl shook her head, idly pushing her long hair over her shoulders to cascade down her back. She never would have guessed that the woman knew stylish clothing when she saw it. 'I would have thought that she would have bought nothing but Kimonos for me.' The girl idly thought to herself. Instead, Ranma's mother had come back with enough clothing to rival anything that Britanny had ever bought at a sale in the mall. Where the older woman had found pants and underwear with tail holes, Grave would never figure out. At least it was more comfortable that way. The Werecheetah Lycanthropoid figured that there was more to Nodoka getting her so much clothing than just the fact that she happened to be Ranma's friend. When Grave asked the woman, she just smiled and said something about knowing why Grave had been wearing the extremely tight mage suit and winked at her.

Mentally, the furry girl shook her head. Ranma's mom was weird. She was taken out of her thoughts when she heard a snapping noise right in front of her. She blinked a couple of times, before focusing on a couple of fingers in front of her eyes, she looked beyond them to the arm that they were connected to, to the face and relaxed slightly. "Hi, Ranma. What's wrong?" He was looking at her slightly nervously for some odd reason. Weird.

Ranma smiled and shook his head, before sitting down in a chair across from Grave. "Nothing much, you just looked out of it." He said, leaning back slightly. "Um, thanks for healing me up the other day." He wasn't sure why she hadn't healed him up the morning after they had arrived. Her answer though disturbed him for some reason.

Flashback again...

Ranma, wearing some black pants and a black tank-top, let out a breath as he felt the discomfort in his chest disappear. "Um, so why didn't you heal me up like that sooner?" Not that he held it against her. Especially with the way she was looking around nervously as she healed him up. Maybe she just didn't want his mom to know that she knew magic?

The long-haired short Werecheetah, now back in her purple mage suit, sighed and looked down at her clasped hands. After a few moments, she looked up at him. "I... Just didn't want my "father"," she said in extreme disgust, "to find me any time soon."

Ranma blinked, remembering something about Grave saying how she really didn't have a family, but couldn't remember it too well. His memory just plain sucked at times. "Um, not that I should say much, but why not?" He nearly fell onto his back from the glare she shot at him, before her face softened slightly.

"Sorry," Grave muttered to him, feeling ashamed for reacting like that. "But you have to understand, I don't have a father... Not a real one anyway..." The little Lycanthropoid shook her head. "The only father I have are my sisters' father," She said her voice laced with venom. "As long as he's their father, he'll never be mine." She said vehemently. Accepting that the arch mage was her father would mean she was still in Britanny and Gina's shadow; still in the darkness. And if there was one place she refused to go back to, that was it.

The pigtailed martial artist didn't question that last bit his one friend had said there. He knew about Grave's feelings towards her sisters weren't exactly the best. He sighed at seeing Grave so upset. Leaning forward, he grabbed the Werecheetah Lycanthropoid by the shoulders, before pulling her close to him. When her head was on his chest, he wrapped his arms around her shoulders, before resting his head on top of hers. He smiled slightly as Grave wrapped her arms about his torso. He then frowned as he felt her body shaking slightly. "Grave," he started to say, tightening his hug on her slightly, "I promise that I'd protect you, and I mean it."

Resting her cheek on Ranma's chest, the little Catgirl nodded. "Thank you." She said, smiling. 1

The teenager nodded. Grave was his friend, probably his only friend, he wouldn't let anything back happen to her.

End Flashback...

Grave shook her head. "It's okay." She said smiling at him. "But what about your mom and how she reacted the first morning here?" She giggled at him.

Ranma groaned at the memory. "Do you HAVE to remind me?" He said sighing. "I felt she was going to break my ribs with her hugging." He grimaced. He sighed as Grave started laughing at him, giggling so hard that she actually fell out of her chair and onto the wooden surface of the porch, her hands clenching her sides and her legs kicking up and down in the air.

Rolling his eyes, Ranma stood up and prepared to go into the house, when his mother, in a light green kimono, opened it and blinked as she looked down at the laughing Lycanthropoid. "Ranma, why is Neko-tama laughing the way she is?" Not that it was a bad thing, but it was hardly seemly for a young lady to be laughing her tail off. Quite literally in this case. 2

"She was thinking of something that happened a couple days ago." He said quite frankly. It was true after all, she was laughing at how his mother had reacted to him being back and the look on his face while she was hugging him. The worst part was Ranma couldn't even blame her for laughing the way she was.

"I see." Nodoka said slowly. She then shook her head. Neko-tamas could do what they darn well pleased. And if this one wanted to stick around and laugh her tail off, far be it from Nodoka to stop her. "I was just curious. I was wondering where your father is."

Ranma blinked a couple of times, ignoring Grave as she started to calm down from her laughing. "It took you four days to ask that question?" He didn't have much room to talk, but four days to remember to ask about that? That was a little long in his opinion.

The redheaded woman sighed. "Forgive me. But in the excitement of having you back after ten years, I guess I forgot." Her son hadn't turned out to be perfect, but he was back in her life, so she'd take the good with the bad in this case.

Her son shrugged. He couldn't say much to that. He forgot stuff all the time, if it wasn't too important, then he forgot about it. "Nope. Don't know where Oyaji is."

Nodoka tapped her chin. She had a far-off look in her eyes for a few moments, until she snapped her fingers and her eyes lit up. "Oh, that's right!" She ignored the confused looks from both Grave and Ranma. "Your father had a friend he used to train with when he was younger. Soun Tendo."

Ranma blinked, and shrugged helplessly. "I guess. Maybe he's with his old friend right now?" His father still had a friend that would let him stay? With the petty thefts and the people that chased them out of towns when he was younger, the pigtailed martial artist thought that Genma didn't have any friends left.

Nodoka nodded and headed back into the house. "I think I'll give them a call up and see if he's there." She smiled and then walked back into the house.

Behind her, Ranma blinked and shrugged. So his old man would be back in his life again. No big deal to him. He was surprised as Grave pushed her way past him and into the house. "What the?" He sighed and threw his hands into the air. He couldn't figure out why people did stuff without telling him. He figured people just needed their privacy, plus it didn't seem THAT important to him. "So how come Grave took off like that?" He asked himself.

Inside the house, Grave ran up to Nodoka just as the woman had picked up the phone. "Mrs. Saotome," The Lycanthropoid started to speak, only to blink her eyes as Nodoka frowned at her. "I mean, Auntie," She corrected herself, "Can you please not tell who you're calling that Ranma's here?" Left unsaid was that she didn't want anyone to take her friend away from her and have her be left alone again.

Nodoka frowned at that. However, seeing the slightly pleading look in Neko-tama's light green eyes made her finally relent. "Sure thing." She said, smiling as the Catgirl nearly jumped for joy.

(----)

Kasumi, who had gotten in after getting the mail, blinked as she heard the phone ringing. Shrugging, she went over to small desk and picked up the phone. "Moshi, moshi?" She blinked as she heard a woman, one whom she had never heard before, ask for Uncle Genma. "Hmm... Will you please hold on for a moment, um...?" She blinked at the name. "Yes, hold please, Mrs. Saotome." There was something odd about having a woman call for her "uncle", what it was, the eldest Tendo wasn't TOO sure of just yet. 'Hmm, maybe it's his sister or something?' It was possible; they did have the same last name. Incidentally, the possibility that Genma had a wife didn't register on her mind, even if he had a son. "Uncle Genma, you have a phone call." She said as she came onto the porch, smiling at her father's friend. Genma and her father were sitting on the porch, talking about old times and discussing several different ways to get Ranma back, neither of them were able to come up with anything solid just yet.

The slightly portly man looked up and nodded. "Um, who is it?" He asked her. Idly, he wondered how she could afford to cook such tasty meals and still study for medical school like she was doing right now. If he had his son with him, he'd risk calling his wife, if only to give Kasumi a break of some sort. 3

"Someone named Nodoka Saotome." She answered, blinking as the portly martial artist paled considerably.

Genma shuddered. It was JUST his luck that No-chan would call when he was here and Ranma was missing. "Tell her that I'm not here. I went on a training trip or something. Tell her anything, but do NOT tell her that I'm here!" He whispered sharply.

Kasumi blinked a couple of times, before nodding. Why Genma was so afraid of the woman wasn't any of her concern, though, she made a note to find out what the heck was wrong with Genma right now.

(----)

Nodoka sighed as the woman that had picked up the phone in the first place had come back with her answer. "I see, thank you very much, miss..." She trailed off, not knowing who she was really talking to, "Kasumi." She said, nodding, she then blinked as she realized that the woman on the other side wouldn't be able to see her nod. "Very well, thank you for telling me; you too, have a good day." She sighed and hung up the phone. If Genma wasn't at his friend's house, then where was her lovable, if slightly idiotic at times, husband?

"Auntie?" Nodoka looked at Grave, who had a slightly hopeful look in her eyes. "What did you find out?" If Ranma's father wasn't there, then she could be with her friend longer?

The redhead sighed and shook her head. "Apparently my husband isn't there." Though where he could be, she wasn't sure. Though, she wondered about the hopeful look in the Neko-tama's eyes. Perhaps she was hoping that Genma was there and Ranma could be reunited with his father, and she could finally have him back in her bed again.

Grave smiled to herself. Without Ranma's father there to take him away, she'd get to have him stay with her for awhile longer. 'If he does show up though..." She thought to herself, shuddering.

(----)

In the Japanese wilderness, a force was coming. It was strong, it was powerful, it was tough, it was stubborn, it was...

Totally and utterly lost.

"Dammit!" A youth with green eyes, short dark hair, muttered as he looked around him. "Where the HELL am I now?!" He cried out looking around him, growling and showing that his teeth were rather sharp, similar to a Vampire's fangs. He was about five-foot-eight to five-foot-nine, with a very solid build, one that hinted at extreme physical strength. He wore brown pants that were wrapped up tightly at the ankles, a green shirt that hung loosely on his body, with a large back-pack on his shoulders and a red fold-up umbrella on said backpack. On his forehead was a tiger-striped bandana, meant to keep the bangs of his hair out of his eyes and to keep the sweat from getting into his eyes should he sweat at all.

Looking around the forest, he sighed, before growling as he continued on his way. "Ranma Saotome, when I catch up with you, I promise to make your life hell for what you did to me." He frowned, clenching his left fist so hard that he started to draw a little bit of blood. 4

Back on Jade...

Brianna sighed, it was the final few minutes before her mom fought against that bitch G'nolga and tried to win her title back as Armsmaster. She, Gina, Luan, Carla, her grandmother, and father were all standing in an outdoor amphitheatre, similar to the ones in ancient Rome. She blinked as she felt a hand squeeze her shoulder lightly. "Brianna, it'll be okay. She seemed different from what you told me about her, and from what I can remember how you acted before."

The taller blonde nodded and sighed slightly. "Yeah, I know. But... I wonder... Why did she save me?" It didn't make much sense to her, why would her dark side save her and risk being killed in the process? "And... Who was that guy?"

Gina shook her head. She had no idea either. "I wish I knew, Brianna, I wish I knew." She then blink-blinked as a thought came to her. "You know, Grave Digger seemed really worried for that guy when he got hurt like he did."

"Um, yeah, so?" After a few moments, Brianna blinked. "Wait, you mean that that guy might be her friend or something?"

Gina nodded. "If you think about it." And they had nearly a week to think about what had happened. "It makes sense, in a bizarre, weird sort of way."

"So, in other words, 'same old, same old, but in a different way' for our lives." The blonde Lycanthropoid said in a slightly sarcastic tone of voice. Now that she thought back on it, the look on Grave Digger's face was one that mirrored what Britanny looked like when she thought Stryyp was dead back on Aebra.

* * *

Preview of next chapter: "Where the HECK am I NOW!? Sheesh! First Jusenkyo and now here? Anyway, next time on Grave's New Life. There's going to be some action finally. School? What school? No one told me that there was going to be a school! ARRGH! Ranma! This is all your fault!"

1 What's this? Ranma showing such kindness to someone? Check back to the previous chapters. This will make sense then.

2 Does Nodoka wear ANYTHING besides Kimonos? In either the Manga or the Anime?

3 The same reason I can write this chapter and still have college homework to do. Chuckles It's called cramming. But that isn't real note here... Nope, the real note is that while I may not have an air-headed Kasumi, I still realize that she's important to keeping the Tendos fed at the very least. I may have to go back and change some stuff. I don't know. What do you all think? And, yes, Genma IS a decent person in the Manga; at least, he's not total scum.

4 Heh, I wanna give Ryoga a different curse here. I'm SURE you all figured out who THAT was. I'm not sure what to do with him yet. Ideas? Suggestions? Let me know what you think would be a good curse. Either for comedic reasons, or to give Ranma a better challenge.

Any ideas on where Ranma should go to school? Should it be Furinkan or somewhere else? As for the curse? It hasn't activated much lately. Hmm... Maybe I should remedy that soon?


	17. 16

Grave's New Life

Chapter 16

Disclaimer: My school work ate my dog! AHHHH!! (Blink) Oh, you want a disclaimer. Rumiko Takahashi-sama owns Ranma 1/2. High Lord Fred Perry owns Gold Digger. Other series belong to their owners. This sorry excuse for a story belongs to me. Lawyers belong to evil Demons, they deserve to be banished. Along with the rest of the government, but that would be, supposedly, a bad thing.

I'd like to say that I am SO sorry for the long delay on this. College work was killing me and my drive to write for the last month.

* * *

Ranma grumbled as he ran across the fence top to the address that his mother had given him. "Still can't believe they talked me inta goin' ta school." At least his mom had somehow convinced the school into allowing him to wear casual clothing. "Mishiba High School..." Ranma muttered to himself as he looked at the piece of paper with the address on it. 1 

"And I bet things are going to be dull too." He muttered to himself, jumping off the fence and running the rest of the way to the school yard. When he got there, the pigtailed martial artist looked around the grounds and took them in. Most of the people were mulling about in front of a three-storied building, a clock tower in the middle of the outer structure of the building. The school yard was mostly empty of anything noticeable, save for the sakura tree on the right side of the yard. 'Looks like my old school.' He thought to himself.

Shrugging, Ranma walked into the school yard. 'It's going to be _so_ dull.' He thought to himself.

How little he knew...

(----)

"So, Osaka did not pan out." A wizened old, dry voice spoke up from inside an abandoned warehouse. A short, white haired, wrinkled old woman stepped over and looked out an open window. The window wasn't able to be closed, due to the fact that there was no glass pane there at all. The old woman sighed. It had been over a week since coming to Japan, and still they hadn't found out who that redhead was.

"It would have been easier if I hadn't messed with that teleporting spell the fat man was casting." The purple haired girl grumbled to herself. It didn't help that she had been beaten by that fat man, but she wasn't going to mention that to her great grandmother. If she did, why, she might actually have to marry that unsightly man.

Said great grandmother raised an eyebrow as she looked at the young, buxom, purple haired girl sitting in the shadows of the building. 'What are you hiding?' She thought to herself. "You should speak in Japanese while we're here, Shampoo."

Shampoo winced. "Shampoo not like speaking silly language. Make her sound like stupid bimbo." She said, switching to Japanese. "So, where we go next?"

Cologne smirked. "I'd say a trip to Tokyo is in order." If the place was anything like it was nearly fifty years ago, then their best bet would be there. If not, then at least they would find someone who might know about the redhead, or that slightly fat bald man.

The violet haired girl nodded. "Shampoo not know why though." They had tried Osaka, this one place called Hiroshima, and a small shrine, but nothing had panned out. 2

"You'll know when we get there." The old woman said, looking at her charge seriously. She idly wondered if Tokyo still had all those weird martial arts. 'Or did they loose their warrior spirit?' Even if there was a good fighter in a group of people, it was the populous at large that determined the spirit of a nation. If the populous was lazy, then the spirit of that nation was also lazy.

Shampoo sighed; she didn't want to stay in this land any longer than necessary. 'Still, it's nice to have a vacation, even if I'm supposed to be killing someone.'

(----)

Growling slightly as he made his way through the trees in a small Japanese forest, Ryoga frowned slightly before running into and through an Evergreen. Thankfully, for him, and not-so thankfully, for an ant-hill, the tree toppled over and fell to the side, rather than forward. "When I find you, Ranma, I'm going to make you pay for what you did to me!" It wasn't so bad with what he had gotten when he fell into that pool of water that bothered the lost boy. At first he had thought it was neat, until the rest of the curse had kicked in. Stopping at the edge of a cliff, the bandana clad youth shuddered and gripped his head. "GAHH!"

After a few minutes of dispelling the images in his head, Ryoga growled and took a step forward. . .

Of course, he really should have watched where he was, because his next step caused him to fall off the cliff and into the valley below. "RAAANMMMAAA! I have seen true Hell! And it's UGLY!" Was the scream as Ryoga disappeared from view.

(----)

Yawning as he sat in a large auditorium, which was rather loud from everyone talking, Ranma had to bite back a sneeze that threatened to escape. That was the sixth one that morning, and it wasn't even ten in the morning yet. Looking at the person next to him, a lean boy about five-foot-five, he had brown eyes, a sharp face. He was wearing a blue jacket uniform and pants, although the jacket was open slightly. "So, what's happening?"

The boy shrugged. "I guess they're introducing some new teacher. A Gaijin from what I've heard." He said in a bored tone of voice.

The pigtailed youth shrugged. It could have been worse. They might have had that short crazy woman as a teacher. He smirked to himself. Who would be crazy, or desperate enough to hire a crazy fighting teacher?

(----)

In Hawaii, a tall man with a pineapple tree that grew on his head sneezed, blinked, then shrugged it off before planning for his return trip home.

(----)

The noise in the auditorium quickly died down as the Principal, a lanky man in a blue suit walked up to a microphone in the middle of the stage and spoke. "Good morning. Well, I'll make this short so you all can get back to your classes." He had to hold back a smirk as the majority of the students groaned. Skip class would they? Not on his watch, but this was important. "Today we have a new teacher joining us for the year." He said in a loud, clear voice. "His name is," he paused for a moment to look at a slightly damp piece of paper, "um, Professor, um, darn, I can't read the rest of this. It's soaked." The Principle's face flushed red as the students all began laughing at him.

"It is not my fault that you can't understand how steam will save the world!" A voice with a slight Western accent spoke up from behind the curtain. Everyone hushed up as the curtain was risen up, revealing a wall of steam behind it.

Several people blinked many times until a portion of the steam, around four and three quarters feet in height and three feet in length walked forward towards the microphone. Everyone watched as the steam rolled away to reveal a man about four and a half feet tall, with short, spiky hair that stuck out in all directions, thick glasses on his face, and a white lab coat around his body. 3

The Principal nodded and stepped back as the man got close to the microphone. "Good morning. I am Professor Steamhead and I shall be your new science teacher." He didn't even bat an eyelash as several of the students started laughing at him. "True, my name may be funny, but I guarantee that you will all learn something from me before you leave here."

One person behind Ranma snickered. "Yeah, how not to name my children." A few people around him chuckled, though Ranma blinked, not really sure what that meant. What did naming children have to do with a person's name? Sure, the name was weird, but not that weird.

Steamhead smiled as he looked over the students. "And as an esteemed professor of Steamology, I think it best to show you all an example of how steam shall make our lives better. But I will need a volunteer." Prof. Steamhead looked around the room, looking for any suitable volunteers, before pointing at a boy with a pigtail. "You there!"

Ranma blinked. "Wha?" Why him? Well, it could have been someone else, but for some reason, Ranma seriously doubted it.

"Yes, you!" Steamhead said seriously, his foot tapping as he waited for his volunteer to get on stage.

"Who? Me?" Ranma asked, confusedly.

"No, your mama. YES, YOU!" Steamhead shouted. "Up here, on the double! Chop-chop!" The shorter man clapped his hands together impatiently.

Ranma sweat-dropped, before shrugging. "Fine." At least he was near the isle. Standing up quickly, he jumped over the people next to him, landing in the isle, before walking onto the stage.

Prof. Steamhead nodded his head. "And your name is?" He asked the pigtailed youth that made it up to the stage.

"Saotome Ranma." Was the reply.

"Ah, well, Mr. Saotome," Steamhead went back behind the curtain which had closed. There was sounds of movement and a small crash. More steam started to come out form behind the closed curtain.

Finally, the professor of Steamology came out with a metallic disc with tubes that were onto cuffs; eight of the rings in all. "Here! Put on this harness."

Ranma blinked. "Ohhhkayyy..." He said slowly, looking the contraption over. "How the heck do I put this on?" He asked, expecting laughter from the others.

No one laughed though, because they didn't know what the contraption was either.

"Oh for the love of..." Prof. Steamhead groaned. "Please, give that to me, Saotome-san."

Rolling his eyes, Ranma handed the device over to the American. 'Sheesh! No patience.' He thought to himself.

Taking hold of the device, Steamhead jumped up, slapping the disc onto Ranma's back. The tubes shot forth, wrapping about Ranma's legs and arms, the rings securely fastening about him.

"Hey, what the?!" The youth exclaimed, looking at the device as it was wrapped around him. "Okay, so why'd you do that?" He asked the American, slightly annoyed; he looked funny at that moment, even if he didn't care how he usually looked.

"Try doing something," Steamhead told Ranma. "You'll find this steam-powered device will increase your natural abilities twenty-fold." If the youth tried to jump, like most of the people who tried that, he might be lucky enough to touch the rafters, and nothing else.

Ranma blinked. "Twenty-fold?" Okay, so maybe it wasn't so bad after all. Tensing slightly, Ranma jumped up. . .

And through the auditorium celing.

Steamhead blinked his eyes in surprise as sunlight went into the room. "Odd, I didn't think I set it for fifty-fold." Of course, Prof. Steamhead hadn't thought a martial artist of high caliber would be using such a device.

(----)

"Neko-tama? What's wrong?" A slightly worried Nodoka asked as she walked into the living room. On a chair near a window sat Grave Digger, looking out the window. The only thing that the older redhead could call the look was one of longing. 4

A little startled, the short Werecheetah blinked and looked at the older woman. "Oh, Auntie. I'm sorry, I was just," she sighed, looking back out the window, "thinking." She hated waiting for anything, it was even worse in the fact that she had to stay home all day while her friend was at school.

Nodoka blinked at that answer, before smiling. 'So, this Neko-tama fancies my son, huh?' She thought giddily. True, she didn't know much about their relationship, if anything, just that they had been together for awhile, not that it mattered to her. "Oh dear, it seems that I forgot to give Ranma some of his lunch." She mock-gasped, smiling internally as she saw her guest perk up and look at her, her greenish-blue eyes lighting up in surprise at those words, "Neko-tama, could you be a dear and give Ranma his lunch?" She asked as she walked back into kitchen. "It'll take me a moment to get it ready. Get dressed and take it to him for me, please?"

"Of course, Auntie." She said, quickly, getting up and running upstairs to get some clothes on that would allow her to blend in with the people outside a little easier. After reaching the top of the stairs, she thought about Britanny's first day in school in her hybrid form and how nervous she was to be around normal people, before shrugging. What did she care about that loser of a so-called sister of hers?

Nodoka smiled as she put a few food-stuffs in a small bento. Not enough to fill her husband, nor her son, she suspected, but at least it would give that poor Neko-tama an excuse to go see her son.

It didn't take long for her guest to come down from getting changed. The kimono-clad woman raised an eyebrow at the choice of clothing; it was that skin-tight purple one-piece with a tail hole that she had worn when she first arrived. She raised an eyebrow and smirked lightly. "If you're trying to seduce my son, Neko-tama-chan, that might just be the outfit to do it in."

Said "Neko-tama" blushed in spite of herself. "Well," she began at length, "maybe." It was probably a good thing that Ranma's mother didn't know how they first had met. 'She might think we already slept together.' She thought to herself, although the prospect itself wasn't a bad thing, not at all.

Smiling at the flustered girl, Nodoka handed her a small box. "Here you go, dear. You better hurry before my son eats a tree or something." She giggled at the younger girl's slightly perplexed look. "Don't worry about it, dear. Run along and get going or you'll miss your chance to see my son again."

Grave eeped and quickly ran out the door. A moment later, she returned with a slightly embarrassed look on her face. "Um, Auntie," she began. "Just where is the school anyway?" She hadn't been awake when Nodoka had given Ranma instructions, and she was new to Japan, so her ignorance could be forgiven.

Smiling, Nodoka gave the young Werecheetah the directions to where Ranma's school was at. Smiling, Grave nodded. "Thanks, Auntie." She said, before running out the door. 5

Nodoka shook her head before sighing. A light smirk came to her face as she thought about her son and "Neko-tama". "Oooh, I do hope things work out between them." As she thought about it, her thoughts soon turned to something she hoped happened in the near future. "Wai! They'll be so adorable!!" She gushed, thinking about children between her son and that "Neko-tama". 6

(----)

Sitting under the Sakura tree, Ranma bit back a sneeze before opening his Bento box. Thinking back on his morning, he had to admit that it was fun, experiencing near flight from that device that the new teacher had put on him. It only took about a half hour to get back down onto the Earth from that jump. When he told the professor that, the older man smiled, nodded, before taking the device back; just as well, Ranma didn't feel all that comfortable with such a device on him. After all, what kind of martial artist would use cheap tricks to get ahead? 7

(----)

In Japan, several people sneezed all at once, before wondering what that was all about.

(----)

Shaking his head to clear his thought about power-ups, Ranma smirked and picked up a piece of food. He was so glad that it was his mother's cooking and not his old man's, or his own for that matter. While he could cook some decent foods, they were nowhere near as good as they should have been. 'Yeah, just edible and nothing else.' He thought to himself, before taking a bite of the food and smiling. "This is good." He muttered to himself, before making like a vacuum and sucking up the food into that black hole he affectionately called a stomach.

"Hey!" A familiar voice spoke up, causing the martial artist to jump slightly and hop to his feet. He calmed down when he noticed who it was. "Hi, Grave. What's up?" Though, he did wonder how the heck she snuck up on him without him noticing. Maybe it was the food; he hardly noticed anything when he was eating food.

The mini-Lycan smiled and held up a small box. "Your mother said she didn't put enough food into your lunch box, so she asked me to bring some for you." Her smile widened as she saw his blue eyes brighten at those words.

"Alright, thanks Grave!" He smiled at her and took the offered Bento, before opening it and going to town. He blinked as he felt Grave sit down right next to him, but he didn't stop eating. If she wanted some, she would ask.

The mini-Lycan sighed happily and leaned back against the tree. It was nice out, she was with her best friend, and most importantly, that so-called family of hers wasn't around trying to kill her. 'Yeah, life is good.' She thought to herself. There was nothing that could spoil this moment, nothing.

She blinked as she heard thunder in the distance. It didn't look like it was about to rain, so why was there thunder in the distance? She shrugged; it didn't matter too much to her. 'Nothing wrong with a little thunder.' She thought to herself.

(----)

Several students blinked as they took in the unusual person in purple skin-tight clothing walk over to the new student. There weren't many people that had pure white faces, much less tails coming out of their back-sides. Most of the people shrugged it off as the person sat down next to the new kid quietly. Though, most of them started whispering among each other, saying how weird it was that some sort of furry with a tail would show up at their school.

A few moments later, several of the students jumped at the crack of thunder in the distance. Looking around, not a single one could see any dark clouds in the sky. They had to wonder just where that thunder had come from.

A couple minutes later, a haggard and slightly battered figure stumbled his way onto the courtyard. Grabbing a near-by male student, he lifted him up and looked at him sharply. "Listen, I've been through hell," he said slowly, his green eyes practically glowing with a slight insanity, "so you have one chance to answer this." The brown-haired individual smirked darkly as the person nodded. "Does Ranma Saotome go to school here?"

"Um, who?" The boy asked uncertainly, finding that it was slightly difficult to breathe while someone held you by your neck, at least he wasn't squeezing tightly.

The youth's left eye twitched and he let out a low growl from his throat out. "He's about my height, blue eyes, very cocky, has his hair done in a pigtail. Know anyone like that?"

The kid nodded as best he could, before pointing a shaky finger at the Sakura tree. "O, over there. He's sitting next to..." before the kid could finish his sentence, the youth dropped him and turned to the tree. "Ranma Saotome, you will pay for what you did to me." He said, before running up to the tree as he saw his hated nemesis walking out from behind the tree. 'The coward, always hiding.' He thought to himself. "PREPARE TO DIE!!"

Ranma blinked, the hairs on the back of his neck sticking up for no apparent reason. Well, the yell may have had something to do with his danger sense going off at that moment. Grabbing Grave Digger, Ranma jumped up and back, before the ground around where he was standing a few minutes exploded and collapsed. He blinked as a fairly muscular teenager, about his age, wearing a tiger-patterned bandana, brown pants and a green shirt stood up with a nasty sneer on his face. 'Now, where have I seen him before?' He thought to himself. Something about the person in front of him nagged at his memory, but he just couldn't remember at that moment.

"So, still good at running away, huh?" The teen said. "You haven't changed at all."

Ranma blinked. Now where had he heard that voice before?

"Um, Ranma, you can put me down now." Grave said, even if it was reluctantly. She would have loved to stay in his arms, but if that psycho that was in front of them attacked, she'd just slow her friend down if things came down to that.

Said person blinked, before setting Grave Digger down on her feet absently. "So," he began slowly, "why the heck are you attacking me?"

Ranma and Grave both sweat-dropped as the person in front of them face-faulted into the ground so hard that the asphalt cracked around his head. "That had to hurt." They both said at the same time.

"RANMA! HOW DARE YOU FORGET ABOUT ME?!" He shouted as he stood up, cracking his knuckles. "And after you ran away from our duel to go to China!!"

His eyes lighting up, Ranma smiled brightly as he remembered just who the person in front of him was. "Hey, Ryoga. How you doing?"

"I'd be better if you were dead!" Ryoga said, charging forward, his fist reared back. "And I'll make sure you see Hell!" 8, 9

To be continued... (Aren't I a stinker?)

* * *

Preview of the Next Chapter: 

Let's get ready to rumble! Ranma Vs. Ryoga!

Next chapter will be a test chapter. You'll see why when I get around to writing it. Again, I'm sorry for the delay in this chapter.

1 All apologies to anyone that's ever visited Japanese schools before. I'm ad-libbing this from what I've read and what I've seen.

2 Heh, figure out what shrine this one is. Like I said before, cameos will show up on occasion.

3 What? You expected this to be either a normal teacher or something?

4 Everyone in Nerima has their little quirks. This is just a little quirk.

5 I said that I was ad-libbing here.

6 What? You thought she wouldn't be thinking about grandchildren or something?

7 Pot, this is kettle, you are black. Of course, out of the group, in the Manga at least, Ranma seemed (at least up through book 12) the least likely to get a power-up when it wasn't necessary. The Battle Doji thing threw that out of whack.

8 Yeah, I know this follows the Manga fairly closely, but I decided to use the lines, at least right away.

9 How'd Ryoga get to Ranma's school so quickly? Simple enough, the deal with the auditorium was in the morning, and Ryoga is showing up in the afternoon.


	18. 17

Grave's New Life

Chapter 17

Disclaimer: Disclaimer? I need a disclaimer? (Goes to look in the dictionary) Hmm... Disclaimer, something used when people associate with Lawyers. Oh well, I don't own Gold Digger, Ninja High School, or Ranma 1/2, they're owned by High Lord Fred Perry, Godfather Ben Dunn, and Rumiko Takahashi-sama respectively.

Note: This is a test chapter. It'll be a bit shorter on purpose here.

* * *

"I'd be better if you were dead!" Ryoga said, charging forward, his fist reared back. "And I'll make sure you see Hell!" 

Ranma's eyes opened slightly as his old friend/rival charged at him. "Hey, watch it!" He yelled out, jumping up and over as Ryoga rushed in, his fist slamming down and shattering the ground under him, a small explosion occurring.

Grave eeped and jumped to the side, covering her face and eyes with her arms as dirt, rocks and debris flew up around from the point of impact. "HEY! You could hurt someone!"

Blinking, the bandana-clad teenager looked at the source of that voice. He was slightly started as he saw a girl with blonde hair, dark spots, a white face with a stripe on the right side of it, she was wearing a skin-tight purple one-piece suit of some type. 'A tail?' He thought in surprise as he saw the furry appendage sticking out from behind the girl in front of him. He shook his head. "Sorry about that, I'm not trying to hurt you." He said, before turning back to Ranma, or at least where he thought Ranma was. "Huh? Now where'd he go?"

"An opening!" Was all Ryoga heard, before he got kicked in the back of the head, sending him rolling forward.

He growled, before rolling with the blow and back onto his feet. "Ranma! You coward! Using a Neko-tama as a distraction!" He screamed before running back at Ranma and lashing out with a kick. He gritted his teeth as that jerk jumped the kick, before kicking back against him hard enough to actually split his lip.

As she watched her friend and that psycho-path fight it out, Grave sighed and ran her left hand through her hair. What was it with everyone in Japan calling her a Neko-tama? Did she have a sign on her back or something? Or was someone upstairs playing a game on her?

Ranma ducked under a roundhouse, before tripping the lost-boy up and kicking up as Ryoga was parallel to the ground. He smirked as his old friend/rival was launched up into the Sakura tree that he had been sitting under a few minutes previous.

He blinked as he heard a snapping sound, before a branch broke off and fell down, with Ryoga on his feet on top of it. 'Woah, he got a lot better.' He thought to himself. Either that or he just recovered quicker.

(----)

"Oh, it's horrible!" A teacher, short, slightly overweight, blubbered as he ran into the teacher's lounge, "There's a student fighting someone else on school grounds!" All the teacher could do was blink as he saw that the only person in the lounge at that moment was that American, Professor Steamhead.

The spiky-haired American blinked at hearing that. "Is that a problem?" Honestly, if everyone got worked up every time that there was a small fight, then everyone's nerves would be wrecked within a week.

"They're wrecking everything and it looks like the one that's fighting our student is trying to kill him!" The other teacher yelled out frantically, practically hopping up and down. "Why, if our student gets hurt, his parents could take him out, or worse, sue the school!" The teacher looked positively horrified at that thought.

Steamhead raised an eyebrow and followed his fellow teacher to a nearby window to look down on the courtyard. He smirked as he saw what was going on. "Oh, they're just playing."

"Playing?!" The slightly tubby teacher shrieked. "How is that considered playing?!"

The American smirked slightly as he watched the fight proceed. "Back in my old school, there was a blonde girl who always fought with a black-haired ninja girl all the time. Well, the blonde used high-powered weapons and armor while the ninja girl used every sneaky ninja trick in the book." He said, nodding to himself slightly. "Compared to that, this is tame."

The other teacher blinked and looked down as the bandana-clad kid got kicked into the outer wall hard enough to cause it to collapse. He nearly jumped out of his skin when said kid got back up, yelled something not-so-nice, before charging the new student. "This is TAME?!" He shrieked, similar to a young school girl.

"Very." Steamhead said, nodding and smiling, causing his co-worker to face-fault at hearing that. "You know, that looks painful, maybe you shouldn't do that?" The good professor said idly as he looked down at the fallen teacher.

His only response was a slight groan from said teacher.

(----)

Ranma ducked under a kick, before landing a five-hit combo on Ryoga's ribs, sending his rival and old friend to the ground, shuddering slightly, before getting back up. 'Oh, gee, Ryoga's really gotten better since I saw him last.' He thought to himself. Not that he'd admit that he was having trouble with the lost boy, since he wasn't, but the fact that the maniac hadn't gotten lost yet had gotten him slightly worried. "Hey, what the heck's wrong with you?"

Growling, Ryoga glared at his nemesis for all he was worth, his green eyes practically glowing with anger. "What's wrong? You have the _GALL_ to ask me what's wrong after the horrors that I've seen?!" After saying that, he shuddered horribly as the memory of what he had seen came back to him.

Behind them, Grave frowned at that. "What? Because you saw something horrible, you get mad at someone and try to kill them?! What kind of psycho are you?!" The petite Werecheetah growled slightly as the idiot who attacked her friend turned and faced her, his face red and flushed slightly.

"You don't understand! It was horrible!"

Rolling her eyes, Grave Digger wondered what was up with all the loonies that she seemed to be meeting since being separated from Brianna. First those wacko arch-mages that tried to kill her but couldn't get their heads out of their butts, then that dwarf, the Undead and that woman with a lot of personalities, then Ranma's mother, okay, she was nice, but still, she was weird, and now this guy. "What? A bunch of ugly people or something?"

Everyone blinked as Ryoga suddenly stopped, before falling to the ground and shuddering. "N, NO!! AHHH! KEEP AWAY!! GAHH!!"

Several of the students blinked and shuddered at the mental images that were running through their heads. Whatever it was that caused the apparent psychopath trouble must have been horrible.

Sighing, Ranma walked up to the downed martial artist, crouched next to him and started poking him with a stick. "Hey, hey, hey, this is no time to take a nap."

"Stop that!" The Lost Boy growled, uncurling and lashing out with a kick at Ranma, who jumped back purely on instinct. Climbing to his feet, the Lost Boy snarled, before lunging at his rival, who hopped over him, before lashing out with a kick to the back of his head.

Frowning as he saw Ryoga hit the ground before bouncing up a good meter. "What's your problem, Ryoga?" It was almost as though the guy wasn't happy to see him or something.

Growling as he skidded to a stop a foot away from the street, Ryoga stood up. "It's because of what you did to me!" He screamed before blinking and looking around. "Just where did you go? COWARD!!" He screamed to the heavens.

Ranma sweat-dropped, he had nearly forgotten how bad Ryoga's sense of direction was. Grave walked up next to him and frowned slightly. "Is he just stupid, or plain moronic?" She asked, crossing her arms over her chest. She barely noticed Ranma shaking his head slowly. As far as the petite Werecheetah was concerned, the fool who attacked her friend was an idiot and deserved little to no respect. Unless they could come up with a good excuse, Grave wouldn't think too highly of people who attacked her or her friend; having so-called sisters and parents who would kill you as soon as they saw you tended to do that to a person.

As far as she was concerned, the fool in front of them was just psychopathic and crazy, a decently skilled fighter, nothing like her friend though, and that was about it. He had a weird magical aura around him, but she couldn't quite place it.

Even if Grave had been able to see the future, she wouldn't have been able to believe what happened next.

A yellow taxi drove by the school, before the driver threw a can of something out the open window. Time seemed to slow down for Ryoga as the can hit the curb right in front of him, spraying the cold, liquid contents all over him. "NOOOO!" He screamed, unable to believe that this was happening to him.

Everyone blinked as the person who showed up and started attacking suddenly... Changed. Several of the students screamed in horror as they saw something straight from a horror movie as the person suddenly gained muscle mass, height, his hair grew insanely quickly till it was down to the small of his back. He still looked human at least. Ranma gulped as Ryoga stood up, now nearly seven-foot-six, with more muscles and an aura on him that even he could feel. "Man, oh man." He muttered to himself.

Grave gawked. "A, a Jusenkyo curse?" She practically hissed out. She looked at Ranma. "You never told me he had a curse." She whispered to him.

Ranma shook his head. "I, I didn't know." How could he? The last he knew, Ryoga was still in Japan, not China.

Ryoga growled, looking at Ranma with his inhuman eyes, "You shall pay! And I'll use this new form to make sure you PAY!" He screamed, before rushing forward faster than his form would suggest.

Ranma's eyes widened as he jumped back, purely on instinct as Ryoga's fist hit the ground hard enough to cause a crater for three meters in all directions. "Holy!" His eyes widened further as he looked around. "Grave? Where are you?"

"Right here." A slightly shocked voice said right next to him. 'Thank god I used that leap spell.' Even though it normally was used to jump high and land slowly, she was able to use it to jump back quickly enough, and it was low-level enough that she didn't need to worry about a pesky magic user finding her out.

Growling and standing up, everyone blinked as they could only see the head of the person who caused that crater from within it. "I will make you pay, Ranma!" He growled, similar to a dog, before jumping out of the crater and into the air.

Ranma shook his head. "Hell with this." He muttered, before jumping up after Ryoga. So what if the guy was stronger and faster? He didn't seem any more skilled than he was before, and that's what really mattered in the end.

Grave paled as she saw Ranma jump into the air and go up after Ryoga. "RANMA!" She screamed, fearing for her friend.

Ignoring her screams, Ranma quickly caught up with Ryoga as he got to the apex of his jump. Channeling as much Ki as he knew how to into his limbs, Ranma threw several powerful and fast strikes at each vulnerable point on the human body that he knew of. The first three strikes managed to actually hit. But Ranma hadn't counted on a few things. First off, the cursed body that Ryoga had was a lot tougher than a normal human body. Secondly was the fact that the body was capable of using large amounts of Chi quickly and thus being able to ignore most attacks on said body. Lastly, Ryoga's natural toughness was transferred over to his new body. So while the curse on a normal human would be extremely powerful and tough, with Ryoga, it was insanely tough, strong and powerful.

Grave gasped and her eyes widened tremendously as that crazy person landed several powerful blows on Ranma, even though he managed to block them, sending him down onto the ground hard. Thankfully, Ranma managed to land on his feet.

Groaning, Ranma shook his arms, which he knew were bruising from those attacks.

Ryoga smirked, even with the... Unusual drawbacks of this new form, it gave him the necessary power to defeat his rival. They had always been even, but now... He started chuckling. 'After I kill you, I'll get cured of this curse and not have to worry about it anymore.' He thought to himself.

Ranma sneered, before taking a more defensive stance as Ryoga took a couple steps forward. If that maniac thought he was going to beat him easily, he had another thing coming.

After five steps, Ryoga stopped, and grabbed his head. "No, no, shut up! NO! I won't listen to you!"

Everyone blinked, until Ryoga spoke again, only this time, in a new, more distinguished and smarter-sounding voice. "Benji! What are you doing wasting your time with that human? I told you we have to get back at Gina Diggers!"

"NO! I am Ryoga! Not Benji!" Ryoga shouted in his voice, thinking back to what had happened a few weeks ago.

(----)

Flashback... (Don't we all just love these?)

"Oh no! Is very bad, sir!" A fat, bald Chinese man in a Maoist uniform and hat said as he took in the appearance of his guest.

Ryoga blinked as he brushed the wet hair out of his eyes. "What is?" He asked, surprised that his voice sounded different now.

"You fall in spring of "Drowned stupid-but-really-strong-guard-boy-to-really-smart-dog". Very tragic story of fused being that was sent back to dawn of time and fall in first Jusenkyo spring ever and drowned. Now whoever fall into spring gains height, muscles, speed, and ability to use Chi." He said, his eyes seemingly closed, his left hand up with one finger pointed upwards.

Ryoga blinked, trying to ignore that pounding in the back of his head. "What's so wrong with that?" It all sounded pretty good to him.

"Aiyahh, person who fall into spring also goes crazy. They have a second person in their head." He said, shaking his head sadly. "Most turn back to normal, only to kill themselves right afterwards. Very, very tragic spring."

Ryoga blinked, before the voices started up again. "What the? Who's Gina Diggers?"

"Ah, yes, people say that voice in head always tells them to go after a Gina Diggers." The Jusenkyo Guide said idly, before pouring a kettle of hot water over Ryoga's head, turning him back to normal.

"Whew! No more voices." Ryoga said, sounding relieved.

"Oh, sir no understand. Voices come back when splashed with cold water." The Guide said, stepping back nervously.

"What?" Ryoga asked slowly, hollowly.

"When splashed with hot water, sir returns to normal. But only until splashed with cold water, then sir turns back into big muscled monstrosity."

End Flashback...

(----)

Shuddering, Ryoga growled at the voice in his head. "Just shut up!" He yelled, before turning around and running away, and through the Sakura tree, and through the outer wall, causing both to collapse.

Blinking as he rubbed his arms, Ranma blinked several times. "What was that all about?" He asked no one in particular. Beside him, Grave just shook her head, she didn't know either.

* * *

Okay, so this isn't all that short. 

I decided to do a mix of seriousness and zaniness for this fight. (After reading the first 15 books of Ranma 1/2, I decided that this would work perfectly for this chapter.) So, what do the rest of you think about this? And, yes, Ryoga's sense of direction comes into play, even in his cursed form.

As I have said before, this is a test chapter. It won't become part of the continuity unless you readers want it to become part of it.


	19. 18

Grave's New Life

Chapter 18

Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi-Sama owns Ranma 1/2, High Lord Fred Perry owns Gold Digger, Godfather Ben Dunn owns Ninja High School, I'm just a poor college student who writes for fun, not profit and the occasional chance to bash brown-nosers calling themselves Government.

(----)

"Are you sure you're okay?" Grave asked Ranma as the two walked away from the school. The Principal had decided to cancel school, considering the damage and the assault, the Principal had decided that it would have been better to cancel school than risk a lawsuit from students' parents.

Ranma waved her concerns off and smirked. "Nahh... Stung a little, but Ryoga couldn't hurt me on his best day." He wouldn't admit it, not to Grave at least, that Ryoga's curse was unsettling, and it wasn't just his looks either. 'If I hadn't been using Ki...' The pigtailed martial artist thought to himself, trailing off.

"Well... Okay..." The short Werecheetah said slowly, still worried that psycho would come back and try to finish what he started. She blinked as she thought about that, all he really did was start a fight and accuse her friend of something stupid.

Ranma smirked at Grave before wrapping his arm around Grave's shoulders. "Hey, it's okay. Nothing happened, so nothing to worry about." His gesture was completely harmless in nature, just a friend giving another friend a friendly hug. However, most people looking on would say that it was something more.

Watching the two young people across the street, two old ladies blinked, held up their pinkies while whispering among each other about how shameful young people were in public now-a-days.

Grave, for her part, blushed slightly as her friend hugged, her, not that she didn't enjoy it, but it was a bit unexpected. Mentally shrugging, she wrapped her arm around Ranma's back and hugged him back. "Okay, I'll try not to think about it." She said reluctantly, basking in the warmth of the simple gesture of a hug. She blinked as Ranma released her from his hug. Reluctantly, very reluctantly, she let go of him, pouting mentally that he broke off first. 'Then again, he might have just been trying to cheer me up.' She thought to herself, feeling even more down at that for some reason.

Not noticing Grave's demeanor change, Ranma smiled and walked on ahead, thinking that she was feeling better now that he had talked to her. So what if Ryoga was a lot stronger now? In Ranma's mind that was something he could use as a measuring stick, as well as something to look forward to.

Sighing, Grave shook her head and picked up her pace slightly so that she could keep up with Ranma. "So, do you think the school called your mom about what happened today?" She giggled as Ranma missed a step, before turning and looking at her as though she was crazy. "What?"

Ranma stared at the Werecheetah-looking girl for awhile. "Um, do they really call parents because there was a fight in school?" That was a new one to him. His last school actually encouraged fighting over stuff, like food and each other, so the mere thought of a school calling his mom over something as minor as a fight was as alien to him as poisoned cooking. (1)

Grave blinked and thought about that. All she really had to go on was the American school system. The Japanese one could have been a lot different than what she was used to. 'Maybe they allow fighting because of cultural reasons.' It was something that made sense, even if not a lot of it, at least to her.

The two walked down the street, soaking up the day. "Say, Grave, I was just wondering, why'd ya show up at the school? I mean, mom packed me enough food to hold me over for a couple hours, so, why'd you show up?" It really didn't make sense to him why she'd show up out of the blue like that. Not to mention that Ryoga showed up, and the lost boy wasn't exactly a safe person to be around when he was in a fight.

Looking away quickly, the petite girl could feel her face flush slightly. 'Thank goodness for facial fur.' She thought to herself. "Um, no reason." Her voice was cracked, slightly scratchy at best. Clearing her throat, she tried again, "No real reason, your mom said that she didn't pack all of your lunch and sent me to go and give you what she hadn't packed." She didn't feel that there was any real reason to tell him that she missed him and was feeling lonely. True, Nodoka wasn't bad company, but she preferred her friend first and foremost.

Ranma blinked a couple of times. "Um, okay..." He said slowly. If Grave said that there was no real reason, then who was he to argue? He blinked and stopped as three rather... Meaty thugs appeared in front of him and Grave. They were fairly big, especially for Japanese people, around six-foot-two, more muscles in their forearms than most people had in their entire bodies, and less sense between them than a roll of pennies.

The one in the middle, apparently the leader, smirked as he took in the two. "Well, well, what do we have here?" He looked from Ranma to the girl with him, before blinking. "Why's a girl like youse hanging with a guy like that?" He asked, pointing at the shrimp next to the girl.

Ranma's right eye twitched for some reason. This guy was just begging to get the crap beaten out of him. 'Shouldn't be too hard.' He thought to himself, the three thugs not showing any signs of training, formal or informal.

Grave blinked as Ranma tensed up slightly. She rolled her eyes, did men only think about fighting as the only way to solve problems? Placing a hand on Ranma's shoulder she smirked at him slightly before shaking her head. "Just watch." She whispered to Ranma, before turning back to the thugs. "Why, I don't know why I'm with him when I could be with a big, strong, and slightly handsome man like you." Smiling, the small Werecheetah sauntered up to the guy and smirked at him, running a hand over his pectoral muscles. "Why, these are so hard, I don't know why more women don't throw themselves all over you."

The apparent leader blinked and smirked before looking at his friends. "Well, I knew that youse was a smart girl." He said, obviously happy with himself.

Ranma blinked, what the hell was Grave up to? If she didn't do something soon, he was going to tear into those three jerks. If he was asked what he was feeling, there was no way he could explain it, just something that made him feel irritated at those three, especially the guy that Grave was touching, for some reason.

The Lycanthropoid stopped smiling after a moment, her eyes narrowed and went cold. "Oh, and one more thing..."

"Yeah..?"

A loud crack could be heard for three blocks in all directions. Ranma and the other two thugs looked at Grave in shock for a moment and at where her knee was raised to on that thug's body.

Smirking nastily as she heard the big thug whimper in pain. "Don't insult my friend, or I'll do worse next time." She pushed the guy down onto his back, where he curled up into a fetal position and his hands between his legs, trying to protect something important.

The other two thugs looked at each other, then at their leader, then at the little cat-girl who took him down. "Uh, now what?"

"How about get lost?" A male voice spoke up, causing the two thugs to look at the shrimp with the girl. Said shrimp was cracking his knuckles and looking at the two with narrowed eyes. Normally the two wouldn't care about the look and attack the punk, but the fact that their boss was down had them thinking clearly and actually listening to a little something called their survival instinct, which was telling them to get the heck out of there.

Ranma and Grave watched as the two thugs turned around and ran away from the scary people. Ranma walked over to the guy whom Grave kneed, before kicking him at his fleeing friends. "Oh, don't forget your friend!" He called out before knocking the poor sap into the air and at the other two.

The two watched and laughed as the leader crashed onto the top of the other two as they ran away. Grave giggled. "Now that's funny." She smiled at Ranma before leaning over and kissing him quickly on the cheek. "Besides, I'd never go for someone like that; he's too arrogant for my tastes." Ranma got that way at times, but at least he was nice, that guy struck her as mean. She then blinked at the slightly silly smile on Ranma's face. It wasn't the first time she had kissed him, so why was he acting like that? Feeling slightly uncomfortable, she turned around and blinked as she saw all the people staring at the two of them. 'So that's why.' She thought to herself. She idly wondered if people were staring at her, what she did to that punk, or because they laughed at the three thugs getting knocked around.

The thought of public displays of affection being taboo was as foreign to her as the thought that magic couldn't fix all problems were to any semi-decent mage. (2)

Ranma chuckled as Grave turned around and grabbed his arm, before walking off quickly.

(----)

"We're home!" Ranma called out as he and Grave walked in the door and took off their shoes. When he walked into the living room, he blinked as he saw his mother looking at him with a raised eyebrow. "Um, what?"

"I heard that you got into a fight at school." She couldn't hide the smirk on her face when her son looked at her bug-eyed and Neko-tama-chan giggled from behind Ranma. "I heard that someone came up and started the fight. The school just didn't want me to sue if you had gotten hurt." She said, rolling her eyes. If her son could heal that quickly from a punctured lung, then a small skirmish should have been nothing to him.

"Um, yeah. An old friend showed up at school and started fighting." Ranma said, shrugging. "What? The school kick me out or sumthin?" When his mother shook her head, Ranma nodded. "Well, that's good. I'm gunna go outside and work out."

Watching her friend walk out of the room, Grave sighed, before following him out. It wasn't as though she had anything better to do after all.

(----)

Preview of Next Chapter:

"Hey, that was short, guess it was a filler. Hey, it's me, Grave Digger. In the next chapter, we're skipping forward a few days. Looks like a multi-school event is happening, and you know that Ranma's going to be in it. Nani?! Professor Steamhead's going to be the teacher in charge? Amazons, steam and bears! Oh my!"

(1) Heh, he hasn't had Akane's cooking yet. And no, while it's not poisonous, it isn't exactly good, to put it mildly. Note here: In the manga, Ranma ate some of Akane's cookies and got incredibly sick early on in the series. Genma even said this, "He must have eaten something horrible."

(2) I'm poking fun at a lot of people in this chapter here.

Well, once again, FFNet's messing up with my formatting. So, please excuse it for looking different.

Note to pass on. Christmas vacation is coming soon. So, I'm not sure when and if I'll be able to update during the break. It's only three weeks, so, don't despair. Unlike Summer vacation, which is about 3 months.


	20. 19

Grave's New Life

Chapter 19

Disclaimer: I don't own these characters, never have, never will. High Lord Fred Perry and Rumiko Takahashi-Sama own the main characters, Godfather Ben Dunn owns any Ninja High School characters, and the rest belong to their respective owners.

* * *

"Dammit!" An angry and heated voice screamed out in frustration as the owner of said voice knocked down several trees as a well-built body crashed through them without a care. "Dammed voice!" Looking around, the person growled. "Dammit! Where am I this time!" He shouted to the heavens, not expecting an answer. 

A low sucking sound, followed by a wet and spluttery, sticky sound was all Ryoga's warning as a white, semi-liquid substance fell out of the sky and hit him right between the eyes. Screaming out in indignation, Ryoga wiped his eyes in an attempt to clear them of the vile goop that was infesting them at that moment. Wiping the nearly-white gunk from his eyes, Ryoga growled. "Stupid birds!" The only thing he could think of that he was mildly glad for was that he had managed to get hit by hot water a couple days before.

"Ranma, why didn't you show up on the day of our fight!" Ryoga couldn't understand why his rival would just up and leave for China, making him try and track down his rival. "Only to fall in a blasted pool of cold water." He growled in remembrance as he recalled all the problems that had happened shortly after getting cursed. He shuddered as a certain thought bubbled to the surface. "No, please! No more of that Hell!" He screamed, turning east and running that way for several feet. At least, until he slammed into the side of a cliff at full speed, creating an indentation in the side of the rock formation, just before he blacked out, his last thought was of the personal Hell he had seen several times since becoming cursed with that freakish body. 1

(-)

While Ryoga was passed out cold, other forces were hard at work that evening.

"Saotome, what should we do?" A slightly whiny voice bawled to his slightly over-weight friend. "What about the schools? We still need to tell my girls about that!"

"Do we?" Genma asked as the two walked to the bar to mourn the loss of his son, as they had been doing ever since the attempt to use the scroll to return Ranma to them had failed. "Ranma's not here, so do we really need to tell them?" He asked, his sense of self-preservation kicking in. Something told him that if he told the girls about the engagement, he'd be a world of hurt for some reason. 2

"Bu, but, Saotome, those are my girls, they should know the truth about the engagement!" Soun practically wailed. With Genma's son dead, there was no real reason to hide the engagement anymore. Soun was conveniently forgetting about another engagement he had set his daughters up with many years ago, but then again, he had forgotten many things over his life-time, so his forgetting a "minor" incident that happened while he was training with Genma could be forgiven.

Before Genma could reply to his friend, two figures jumped off of a nearby building and landed in front of the two martial artists with nary a sound. The two Japanese fighters blinked as they saw a teenager with a rather healthy build, purple hair, and red eyes and was wearing a short skirt. The other figure had long white hair, eyes that seemed way too big to be on the face. The shorter figure also wore a green robe and held an incredibly tall, for the creature, gnarled staff. "So, you're the one that my great-granddaughter said helped the redhead escape." The shorter one said in perfect Japanese, the voice giving it away to be an old, extremely old, woman.

Genma gawked slightly. Proving that Ranma wasn't the only one who could stick his foot in his mouth, Genma jumped back slightly, pointed, and yelled in surprise. "Ahh! A Ghoul!"

Her eye twitching slightly, the old woman cracked her staff on the fat oaf's head so fast that he didn't have a chance to move quickly enough to avoid the strike. She mentally smirked as she was rewarded with a meaty crack as her staff hit its mark, sending the one who insulted her into a nearby wall.

Groaning as he slid to the ground, Genma shook his head and gawked slightly. That ghoul just hit him across the street hard enough to make a slight imprint on a solid brick wall. He shivered when he caught her looking at him with narrowed eyes. 'Just like the m-m-master was...' He thought to himself in surprise. He vaguely recognized the young girl, but with the appearance of the old woman, he was left with one option, well, the only option he could think of. "I'll show you! Hiyah!"

The old woman merely raised an eyebrow as the portly martial artist jumped at her with a leap-kick. At least the fool wasn't a complete waste of space if he was willing to try and take her on. She chuckled and waited a moment, before jumping to the top of her stick. When Genma's foot got in range, she slapped it to the side, before hitting him back across the street and into the same depression that she had hit him into before.

Off to the side, Soun was laying on the ground face-first, his arms outstretched and his hands in warding positions as Shampoo stood over him with a bonbouri in her hand, scowling slightly. "Stupid male should learn place with Amazons." She said flippantly.

If Soun were conscious, he would have agreed.

The old woman rolled her eyes as the fool got back up to attack again, only this time shakily. "Well, he's persistent." She could give him that at the very least. Still, she would have to finish the fight soon. She wasn't getting tired at all, but it wouldn't do to kill the fool before they found their prey and killed her. They'd kill him after they were done with the girl. Anyone who helped an escapee from their village deserved to be punished, but only after they had taken care of the problem.

Genma frowned and got to his feet, a serious cast on his face. Looking at Soun, he grimaced in seeing his old training partner out cold. That meant that he was alone against two opponents, normally this wouldn't be a problem, but one of them was good enough to knock him around several times, similar to what his old master was capable of. He had one choice in his mind.

Cologne blinked as the fool actually started to glow brightly with power, with the way his body was, she didn't think he had it in him to actually generate an aura, much less one that was twice his size. She couldn't tell if it was for show or if he was actually serious with using it. If he was serious about using it, she may actually have a fight on her hands. 'Why, I might actually break a sweat.' She thought to herself, chuckling mentally.

The gi-clad fighter got into a stance and tensed slightly. "Saotome School of Anything Goes final attack!" Amazingly enough, his aura got even denser than it had before. 3

Cologne blinked and tensed on her staff, whatever this final attack was; it sure seemed to be fairly powerful. She was certain that she could defeat it, even if it would be harder than usual for her.

Genma then waved, turned to the side and ran at top speeds. "Retreat!"

A moment later, the two Amazons stood, staring stupidly at a dust cloud as Genma continued to get away. Cologne blinked several times as her opponent left the area. The purple haired girl behind her could only sweat-drop. That was the person that defeated her in battle? He sure didn't seem like much, then again, against her great-grandmother, not many people did seem like much.

Cologne blinked a few more times until Shampoo spoke up behind her. "Shampoo think that we be tricked." The younger Amazon was treated to a rare sight, that of an Elder twitching before face-faulting and getting back up again, just to fall back over and twitch in the hole she made in the ground. 4

(-)

Running at top speeds, Genma didn't even bother to look behind him as he escaped from the little troll. He knew he couldn't go back to the Tendo Dojo. 'That evil creature probably already got the information out of Soun.' He thought to himself. Going back to the Tendo home and Dojo was out; otherwise those women would come back and try to finish the job. 'But why are they after me?' The Saotome Patriarch asked himself, frowning slightly. It didn't matter in the end. All that truly mattered was surviving. 'But where can I hide?' He thought to himself. Bars were out, as was anywhere near the Tendo Dojo, people in that area might just tell those women where he was staying at. Suddenly his expression brightened. "Of course!" He yelled out. It was risky, but if he played his cards right, he would have a free place to hide and those stupid women wouldn't know where to find him.

Genma really should have watched where he was going, however, as he ran into the middle of the street, only to get hit by a runaway car, which knocked him through the air. Thankfully, nothing important on Genma's part was damaged, as the car ran into him from behind, sending him flying away. The poor car, on the other-hand, had its front end and bumper crushed in, as some would point out, in the shape of a rather large ass.

"Oh, dammit!" An agitated voice screamed out from the inside of the car. "Well, at least the dammed thing stopped." A young woman's voice sounded as she got out, surveying the damage.

"Now do you believe me that the brakes were out?" An elegant female voice spoke up as she stepped out of the car to look at her partner, shaking her head.

"Fine, fine, I'll get someone to fix the brakes." The first woman said, sighing. She rolled her eyes as the second one nodded, smiling victoriously. 5

A few hours later...

In the middle of a carpeted room, a petite female figure slept, curled up on bean-bag chair as light shone through the window, draping her golden spotted furred form in its warm light. Rolling slightly, she uncurled and stretched her arms above her head and her legs straight out as she woke up from her nap. "Mmmm... That felt good!" She smiled, waking up.

"Nekotama! You're up!" A familiar female voice spoke up in surprise. The little Werecheetah smiled as she saw her best friend's mother, wearing a light green kimono, walk into the room.

"Is Ranma home?" She asked, standing up and looking around for a clock. She had fallen asleep a little bit after lunch, so she assumed that school was out by that time. Her greenish-blue eyes spotting the clock on the wall, she blinked as the clock read at least an hour after school was out. 6

Nodoka smiled at Grave, who was dressed in a red t-shirt and loose blue shorts. "Oh, I sent him out to get some food after he got home from school." The older redhead replied casually. Seeing Grave sigh and look down, Nodoka quickly added to her previous statement, "But he should be back quickly." Grave perked up and looked at her, smiling.

"That's good." Grave smiled, stretching and getting the last of the kinks out of her back. "Auntie?"

"Yes, Neko-tama?" Nodoka asked as she walked to the door out of the room.

"Do you know anyone who wears a white bandanna, a white body suit that's dirty, is slightly pudgy, and a little taller than Ranma?"

Nodoka blinked, that description sounded a lot like someone she knew and loved very well. "Why do you ask?" It was best to find out what the other person knew before giving away any information that you knew. If it wasn't important, then they didn't need to know everything. Even if it was that lucky little and cute Neko-tama.

Grave shook her head. "Well," she began at length, "I saw this fat man chase Ranma around the school in my dream, screaming at him to marry a fiancée and do his duty, or something that involves fighting off fools who come to beat him." The worst thing, in Grave's opinion, was the amount of darkness that was following the fat man, as if he had a lot of bad history following him. Her eyes narrowed as she thought about it. Why did that fool seem so, so, so stupid, yet scary at the same time?

Nodoka nodded, that sounded like her husband alright. "Well, I wouldn't worry about it too much; it was just a dream, right?"

The younger girl nodded, her bangs bouncing on her face lightly. "Yeah... Plus I'm sure that what I saw wouldn't happen." She smiled. "After all, my Ranma's the best!"

Nodoka raised an eyebrow and smiled. "I'm sure he is." She was certainly surprised when the little dear had all but just declared her son as her intended. 'Ah, my son, so manly.' She thought with a mental sigh.

It only took Grave a few moments to realize what she had just said. Blushing, she amended her statement, "Ah, I mean the best marital, ahh, martial artist." She couldn't believe how flustered she was becoming. Her face had to be bright red, facial fur or not, she had to be blushing heavily.

Nodoka nodded, smiling as she turned and walked out. She never would have thought that the Neko-tama would become so smitten with her son. She knew that the girl liked her son, but to practically come out and shout it out surprised the heck out of her. When she got to the kitchen, she gasped in surprise. "Genma!"

(-)

The slightly portly martial artist panted slightly as he leaned up against a telephone pole, though he made sure to keep his eyes and senses open at all times. He never knew when he'd run into one of those crazy women. Still, his current course of action was foolish at best, and even he knew it. He didn't have much of a choice. If he didn't go and try to hide out at his wife's house, those crazy women might actually hurt Tendo's daughters. He knew that Tendo would never forgive him if his daughters were hurt.

Taking a deep breath, Genma shook his head and groaned. He hadn't ran in a panic like that in a long, long time, not since the last time he tried to escape from his old master's tyranny. He sighed as he saw his wife's yard. All he had to do was sneak in, not tip her off that he was home and get some cold water so he could hide in his Panda form. He groaned as his back throbbed. 'Stupid out-of-control drivers.' He thought to himself as he jumped behind a couple of garbage cans, before raising his head up, looking around and practically jumping from behind the trash cans to a thin tree near the edge of the wall. Defying all laws of physics, Genma managed to seemingly disappear behind the tree, before sticking his head out on one side to look, then he slipped it back behind the tree and out to the other side and look there as well. 7 8

Slipping up to the house, he molded himself to the wall next to the door, before grabbing the knob to the door of the house, turning it, he smiled to himself as the door opened up with ease. He didn't think that Nodoka would lock the door too often, well, maybe to keep him out. Idly he rubbed his head as he recalled all those lumps that she had given him trying to keep him from taking their son out on a training trip. Slipping inside, he blinked as he heard Nodoka talking to someone. 'Must be one of her friends.' He reasoned to himself, before slipping down the entryway to the kitchen. If he didn't run, he figured he would make it. His wife's blasted senses seemed to go off when he ran, but when he tried sneaking around, she couldn't tell he was anywhere nearby, it was weird that way, but who was he to complain? Well, if he didn't have to sneak around, he could get to places quicker. He grinned as he got within jumping distance to the kitchen. A few more feet and he'd be able to hide out here for awhile. Though, he had to admit, he was quite amazed that he hadn't changed into a panda on the way over.

The moment he entered the kitchen, he heard a gasp behind him, causing him to spin around quickly and tense up. He didn't want any of those blasted women to get the better of him. One look at the person in front of him, however, caused him to pale and practically wet his pants.

"Genma!" Nodoka gasped out in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

The Saotome patriarch gulped and tried to think of a way out of this one. He had a few ideas in his head, but he needed to get one out and quick.

Meanwhile, in the living room, Grave frowned as she heard Nodoka gasp in surprise. 'What's going on?' She thought to herself, before tip-toeing up to the door of the living room and listening in. Whoever this Genma person was, he seemed to be upsetting Auntie Nodoka.

"Nochan, please..." He began, trailing off. How the hell was he supposed to explain that their son wasn't there?

"Where is our son?" Nodoka asked, crossing her arms under her chest. She cursed the fact that she didn't have her Katana on her, but hopefully Genma would be scared enough that he would be more willing to give out information without her needing to _persuade_ him _too_ badly. She knew that Ranma had just gone out to get some food, but she wondered why she hadn't seen him with Genma.

Genma sweated heavily, Nodoka just _had_ to ask where their son was. He blinked as something came to him. He didn't have to tell her the whole truth about what happened, but something that was enough of a lie would hopefully get his bacon out of the fire. Mustering up all the acting skills he had, he threw his head back and covered his eyes with his arm. "Oh, No-chan, it's terrible! An evil Amazon used some powerful magic and spirited our son away!" That wasn't a complete lie after all, that Amazon was evil, there was powerful magic being used and Ranma was spirited away. 9

In the living room, Grave frowned, her eyes narrowing as she listened in. 'But, but auntie said that Ranma went to get some stuff from the store. And, and auntie said that Ranma was home after school.' She thought to herself worriedly.

"Just what do you mean, Genma?" The redhead asked, narrowing her eyes. If something happened to her son in the time he was gone, she was going to rip her husband a new one.

Taking a breath, Genma gathered up his courage, he just hoped that he didn't mess up on this. "Ranma was spirited away by some magic and, and he, oh I can't say it."

"What?" Now Nodoka was getting nervous, if something really did happen to her son and Genma was trying to just let her know about it, then she could forgive him for not being around for ten years.

"Well, Ranma, is, might be, could be, dead." Genma stuttered, lowering his head. As much as he was trying to avoid his wife's anger, even he was extremely upset by this revelation. He did care for his son after all.

Grave's eyes snapped wide-open as her body trembled hearing that. "No." She whispered to herself, images of Rook and his cronies getting their grubby mitts on her Ranma and doing horrible things to her best friend. Hands trembling, her mind conjured up images of her friend battered, cut, bruised and bleeding with him on the floor, groaning in pain, while Rook stood over him, a glowing red saber held in the air, blood dripping off its edge as he laughed maniacally.

Trembling in anger, her aura sprung up around her as her eyes turned nearly pure white. Images of a life without her best friend ran through her head. From what Ranma had told her of what Genma was capable of, it wasn't too much of a stretch for her to imagine him doing something incredibly horrible and evil to Ranma. 'Genma Saotome, because of you, I've seen Hell! And it's life without my Ranma!' She mentally screamed as she walked into the hallway, glowing brighter than the forth of July. 10

Meanwhile, an unconscious youth sneezed, causing him to wake up. Groaning, he shook his head. "Something tells me I should sue someone for taking something from me." What it was, he wasn't sure just yet.

Back in Tokyo...

Cologne blinked as she looked off to the East. "Hmm... Most ominous." She mused to herself as she and her great-granddaughter sat in an abandoned warehouse. She could feel a sudden burst of strong, yet unfocused, magic off in the distance. It felt as though a mage had just lost his or her temper and was about to unleash the wrath of the gods upon some poor fool who dared cross their path. "Oh well." She shrugged it off as unimportant. It was better to leave well enough alone and not bother a mage who was extremely upset. Besides the fact that the Amazons hated dealing with mages in the first place, they tended to have lots of nasty tricks up their sleeves.

"Great Grandma?" Her heir's voice spoke up from behind. "Why we leave that other man behind?"

The old woman smirked. "There's no need to do anything with him. He may have been around the fat fool, but we have no use for him." She waved it off. "We don't need to cause any more trouble than necessary, at least until we catch that other fool."

(-)

Nodoka blinked as that cute Neko-tama walked into the room, glowing so bright, the redhead wondered if she would need to turn on the lights for the house for the rest of the year. She blinked, seeing tears fall out of her glowing white eyes and down her face as she stared hard at Genma. Stepping back, she'd try to calm the girl after she vented a bit, trying to calm over-powered or hot-tempered fighters usually ended up with one getting hurt. And she had thought that Neko-tama didn't fight.

Genma gulped and started taking steps backwards towards the door. Maybe if he didn't make any really sudden movements, the creature in front of him wouldn't attack him.

One look at said creature's face caused him to change his mind, the angry snarl with the tears falling down her face caused him to loose his nerve and turn around. He wouldn't normally run, but that aura was pretty strong, not to mention the creature looked about ready to kill, and if she knew how to use that aura, he would be in trouble.

When Genma had his back to her, Grave's eyes widened, glowing even brighter before she held her hands up and let loose with such a massive blast that caused the portly martial artist to get blasted through the outer wall of the Saotome house, through the upper portion of the stone wall surrounding Nodoka's home, before he disappeared in the distance with a "Ping".

Looking for a few moments as Genma disappeared over the Tokyo horizon, Grave shuddered, before collapsing to her knees, her aura breaking up into spiraling wisps around her body, her eyes returning to normal, as she fell to her knees, her face looking at the ground as more and more tears fell out of her eyes and onto the floor. "Why? Why him? He, he saved me. Why couldn't I save him?" She asked no one in particular, her body wracked with soul-searing sobs as her tears fell down her cheeks, dripping onto the wooden floor.

Grave stayed like that for several moments, until she heard a voice she would have sworn she would never hear again. "Um, what happened? Mom? Grave?"

The Werecheetah-looking girl gasped and looked up, her eyes slightly red and puffy from crying, and stared. "Ranma?" She couldn't believe her eyes. That fat man had said that he was possibly dead, yet he was standing right in front of her, a few grocery bags in his hands.

Ranma blinked, frowning slightly as he saw his friend crying. "Grave? What's ooof!" Ranma's lack of an articulate response could be forgiven when Grave practically leaped from the floor and tackled him to the ground, hugging him fiercely, her body trembling as she sobbed into his shoulder. She didn't care that she may have broken what was in his bags, she was just glad to have him back in her life.

Ranma blinked and took his hands out of the bags, before returning her hug softly. He wasn't sure what more he could do at that moment, but she seemed to really need a hug.

Looking on as her son held the sad Neko-tama, Nodoka smiled. She was wasn't sure if going up to the Neko-tama while she was crying would have been a good thing after seeing her blast Genma, but she was glad it all worked out, even though she was surprised as hell that her son was alive. 'Hmm... Shouldn't have bought what he said.' She thought to herself, before sighing and smiling at Grave and Ranma. 'So manly.' She thought in bliss. 11

* * *

Preview of the Next Chapter: "Hey, Grave here. Well, we didn't get to the stuff with school; this chapter seemed to not go that way. Not sure what's going to happen next though. The script was destroyed by axe-wielding psycho-midgets from hell." 

1 I'm sure you know what hit Ryoga in the face. And, yes, there is something terrible he saw.

2 That's his strongest ability, to sense potential danger to himself. So, he always makes sure that he has at least a scapegoat. Course, this isn't flawless, but it works 7 times out of 10. It's the other 3 times that he gets in trouble.

3 Genma did create an aura to go toe-to-toe with Happosai for a moment or three in the manga. Of course, he couldn't do anything with it and passed out a few moments later.

4 Hey, what did you expect from me?

5 Ten points to those who can figure out who those two are. And the points here are just like on "Who's Line Is It Anyway", they don't count. And, yes, it's a crossover-cameo, which means this is the only time you'll see them.

6 Yes, I know it's early in the day for Genma and Soun to get drunk, but hey, it's Genma and Soun.

7 Couldn't help myself here, what do you all think?

8 Yes, I know that Genma wouldn't go there normally, but he didn't see much of a choice. He could try hiding elsewhere though, but he never thinks of the long-term consequences anyway. Well, maybe he would have, had he not been cursed. Who knows? Other than Rumiko Takahashi-sama that is.

9 All in Genma's mind, people, all in Genma's mind. Then again, he's not totally off here. "The greatest lie is the truth." – Ranmazoku.

10 Thus proving that it's not just the Nerima natives that jump to conclusions with little information on hand.

11 Nodoka may have seemed indecisive here, but when someone starts glowing and blasts someone for being angry, I wouldn't want to talk to them, they might still be upset.


	21. 20

Grave's New Life

Chapter 20

Disclaimer: AHHH! My brain! It's sucking my brain! The Lawyers! They've been possessed by the pathetic Cartoon Cartoons on Cartoon Network! AHH!

Okay, I'm good now. I don't own Ranma 1/2, Gold Digger or Ninja High School. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sama, High Lord Fred Perry and Godfather Ben Dunn respectively.

* * *

Sitting on the porch, looking out into the yard, Grave smiled as she thought about her life. Things were going so right and seemed to only be going to get even better as her life went on. Standing and stretching lightly in her light blue kimono, the petite Werecheetah walked into the back yard, humming a tune as she took in the day. She was so glad that she had managed to finally live in a place where people in general accepted her with ease. Sighing in contentment, she turned around and was about to walk into the house when she heard some shuffling from behind her. Turning to look, she smiled and kneeled down as a little girl in a little blue dress ran at her. "Mommy!" The little girl, her body covered in light golden fur, black spots and sporting a tail out of her back-side, squealed out happily, hugging Grave tightly. 

The Lycanthropoid smiled brightly before kneeling down and hugging the little girl. "How are you, sweetie?" She asked, smiling as her daughter giggled and started rambling off things as little children were apt to do. "Really?" She asked as soon as the girl was done speaking. "Well, I suppose you've had a busy day. Why don't you run inside and get cleaned up and then you and your daddy can play?"

The girl nodded enthusiastically. "Sure mommy!" She squealed before letting go of the hug and running into the house.

Grave smiled as she watched her little girl run into the house. "Such a little angel." She sighed to herself. She gasped slightly as she felt a pair of strong arms wrap around her from behind. She looked over her shoulder and relaxed slightly when she saw a pair of deep blue eyes. "Hi honey." She smiled at him happily, before leaning back into him.

"How have you been?" He asked in his rich masculine voice, his hug tightening around her. He couldn't believe how lucky he had been to get her as a wife, but he sure wouldn't complain.

Grave purred lightly, cuddling into him and just enjoying the warmth he offered her. "Mmm... Can't complain." She sighed happily, closing her eyes and wrapping her arms over his.

"I bet, Grave." Her husband said, his love for her apparent in his voice.

She smiled, purring a little louder in his embrace.

"Grave..." She blinked as her husband's voice started to soften lightly.

"Grave..." Suddenly his voice sounded as though it was at a distance, not to mention a lot light and a bit higher pitched.

"Grave, wake up, you'll miss breakfast..." (1)

Suddenly the area around her flashed, then went black, before the Lycanthropoid groaned and cracked an eye open, groaning as her vision was filled with a white blinding light. Groaning a little louder, she blinked as she saw a person's hazy image in front of her. "Wha…?" She mumbled out, blinking until she saw the person in front of her totally. "Who?" She groaned, before taking in the face. "Ranma? What are you doing here? And... Why are you a girl right now?" She asked, taking in the red hair and the bright blue eyes, not to mention the shorter body.

"Mom wanted me to get you up before she got done with breakfast, since you were sleeping in today." The redhead said, shrugging slightly. "As for why I'm a girl… It rained this morning."

Grave blinked and looked at the window on the adjacent wall to her bed. "Weird, the window has hardly any water on it." She looked at her friend and blinked as she started grumbling about it raining on only one side and only for a few moments before quitting. "Uh huh…" Grave said at length, sweat-dropping. "Just tell auntie that I'll be down in a few minutes."

The redhead nodded, before turning and leaving. "Sure thing, Grave."

As soon as her friend was out of the room, the Lycanthropoid sighed and slumped on her bed. "Darn it… That was such a dammed good dream too." She whimpered and sighed. "Darn it! I wouldn't mind something like that either." She grumbled to herself, pouting miserably as she sighed, her shoulders slumping in depression. That had been an almost perfect dream, yet... "Just a dream… Maybe I don't deserve a life like that?" She asked herself as she curled up to a ball by pulling her knees up to her head, before resting her forehead on her furry knees. Maybe she was destined to be just Ranma's friend and nothing more?

She sighed, before getting off the bed and grabbing some clothes and changing quickly. She needed to eat and maybe the day would get better as it went on. Though, for some reason, she didn't think it would.

Nodoka blinked as she watched that cute Neko-tama pick at her food, her eyes having a bit of a distant look to them. She sighed as she remembered seeing that look many times in her life. 'Most of the time when I looked at the mirror.' She thought to herself, thinking about the past few years and all the loneliness that she had gone through while her family was away on her. She got up and walked over to her son, now daughter. "Ranma," she whispered to the redhead, "Neko-tama is a bit sad. Want to go out with her today and try to cheer her up?"

Ranma-chan blinked, before looking at Grave, who was barely paying any attention to her surroundings. "Sure." She didn't like seeing her friend looking so depressed. Grave may have been moody lately, but she seemed to be really depressed today.

The older redhead nodded, before heading to the kitchen after grabbing some dirty dishes. After placing the items in the sink, she blinked as she heard a loud rapping at the door. "I'll get it." She called out to her son-turned-daughter and guest.

Thinking about her son, she had to admit that it had been a surprise to find out about the curse, not to mention her husband's curse, though she had to admit that he deserved it. 'Honestly, who does stuff without checking the warnings when training?'

(-)

All across Japan and China, several people sneezed for no apparent reason. (2)

(-)

She shook her head as she heard a louder knocking at the front door. "Coming." She called out, walking to the door quickly and opening it. She blinked several times as she saw a short man with short, spiky hair and a white lab coat. "Um, hello?"

"Ah, yes, are you Mrs. Saotome?" The man said in a slightly accented voice.

"Why, yes I am." Nodoka said, nodding. She had to admit, for a gaijin, he spoke incredible Japanese.

"Ah, good, good." The man smiled at her. "My name is Professor Steamhead and I'm a teacher at the school your son goes to." He said with a bow.

"Oh, Sensei." Nodoka said, surprised, bowing back. "What brings you here?" She asked, curious as to why a teacher would show up on a Sunday.

"I was supposed to give your son a letter, but it slipped my mind until today. You see, there's going to be an inter-school sporting event later this week." He shrugged. "Personally, I would rather have an inter-school science event, but more students want sports rather than science and steam." He shook his head, obviously upset that no one would be going to even try to use steam to save the world. It was quite obvious to the good professor of Steamology that people needed a powerful example of steam's uses. He idly wondered if that Saotome boy would want to use his experiments again.

Nodoka nodded and thought about it. "Hmm, thank you for letting me know, Sensei." She said, bowing. "I'll let Ranma know about it." Though, she idly wondered why the school hadn't announced it yet. She mentally shrugged and walked back into the house, before closing it on the American.

Steamhead blinked, he couldn't recall the last time he had a door shut in his face. He shrugged it off before turning and leaving. "Now that that's taken care of, time to finish that steam-powered telephone!"

(-)

Ranma-chan blinked when her mother walked back in, humming a tune. She shrugged; it probably had nothing to do with her. She sighed as she waited for Grave to come back down from upstairs. 'Well, she DID just leave to shower...' She thought to himself, her thoughts trailing off when she heard her mother calling her name. "Yeah?"

A quick re-cap of what happened not too long ago later...

Ranma-chan blinked, before shrugging. "So? Just some sports and stuff to do. Nothing too hard." She knew that most, if not all, the people that would be in the events wouldn't be anywhere near her physical fitness level.

Nodoka looked at her son-turned-daughter and shook her head. "Don't be too over-confident. Who knows? Maybe someone here can surprise you."

Ranma-chan snorted at that thought. After all the crap she went through from the training trip, and then the stuff on Jade, there probably wasn't too many people on Earth that could match her in ability, any thoughts about Ryoga's cursed form barely passed through her head. "Mom, after everything that I went through, a little school event like this can't be too much."

Nodoka sighed, seeing that her child was too stubborn to change her mind on the matter. "Very well, just make sure not to be too surprised if someone's better than you think." Though, truthfully, from what she knew, she doubted if anyone would be in the condition that Ranma was in.

The redhead smirked. "Hey, I'm the best."

"Then what about G'nolga?" A familiar, yet new voice spoke up from behind the redhead. Turning, the redhead was about to retort, when she got a good look at what Grave Digger was wearing. Besides the smirk on her face, the short Werecheetah was wearing tight black pants that went from her hips down to her ankles, a white shirt that covered her breasts and went down to her abdomen, and to top it off, she was wearing a light blue jacket over her shoulders. Grave giggled at Ranma-chan's expression. "Take a picture, it'll last longer."

Ranma-chan shook her head. "Uh... Yeah, about that..." She stared for a bit more. "Kawaii." She muttered softly.

Grave heard that and blushed slightly. She wasn't the best at speaking Japanese, mostly knowing basic speech and some phrases here and there. She was quite thankful for that translation spell that had been cast on her, when she and Brianna were still connected; back on Jade hadn't worn off yet. The thought of not being able to understand and communicate with her best friend made her shudder mentally; it wasn't a pleasant thought for her in the slightest.

Behind her child, Nodoka smiled as she watched the two. She wondered when those two would quit being skittish around each other. She had to admit that it was fun watching them act the way they did around each other. 3

"Uh, yeah..." Ranma-chan said slowly, before shaking her head and grinning. "You good now?"

"Yeppers!" The Werecheetah smiled and nodded before running from the stairs to the door. She turned around and smirked at her friend. "Come on, slowpoke!" She winked, before turning around and running out of the room.

Ranma-chan blinked a couple of times, before smirking and running out after Grave. "I'll show you who's a slow-poke!" Her voice disappeared around the corner as the two left the house.

Watching the Neko-tama and her child leave, Nodoka blinked a couple of times before shaking her head. She was glad the two were getting along so well, but she wished that they would do more together; she wasn't getting any younger after all, she wanted grandchildren before she was too old to enjoy them. (4)

(-)

Ranma-chan grinned as she ran after Grave Digger. With the way the girl was keeping ahead of her and the way she was moving, the redhead could've sworn that she was using magic to keep just out of reach. Though, she wondered why Grave would be using magic to keep out of her reach. Shrugging, the petite redhead decided that it didn't matter too much and concentrated on trying to catch her friend.

Ahead of her friend, Grave smirked to herself. Using the natural abilities that she had, which weren't much at all, she had to admit, even if only to herself. At least she could use a minor portion of magic to boost her speed and stamina. It might not be insanely fast like real Werecheetahs were capable of, but it was still quite a bit faster than a normal person's speed. Though the fact that her friend was easily keeping pace with her made her wonder just what the boundaries of normal were.

Ranma-chan idly wondered what brought up the chase that she and Grave were doing at this point, but she mentally pushed it out her mind as she ran. This was a lot more fun than sitting around the house after training most of the day and being at school.

Grave giggled as she ran a bit further ahead. She blinked and skidded to a stop in front of a park. She blinked as she took in the scenery, mostly wide-open with trees, a swing-set on the other side of the park, with a sandbox and slide not too far from them. Her eyes widened slightly and she blinked as she felt a rush of air over her head. Turning her head to the side, she blinked a few times as she saw Ranma-chan turning around to face her. "Um, sorry."

The redhead cocked her head to the side, looking at Grave confusedly. "Why'd you stop?" The chase was just starting to be fun when Grave stopped running and caused her to nearly crash into her friend.

The short Werecheetah hesitated for a moment, before looking back at the park and sighing. The last time she had been to a park was. . . Her train of thought stopped right there as she recalled memories that she had, but weren't hers at all. She sighed and looked at the redhead, before forcing a smile to her face, one that even her companion could tell was forced. "No real reason." She said, walking past the redhead, until Ranma-chan grabbed her arm, stopping her.

"Grave, are you okay? You've been sad all morning." Ranma-chan asked, frowning slightly. While she wasn't the best person to talk to about inter-personal relationships, she had gotten better since managing to get away from Genma awhile back, but she was by no means an expert at dealing with people.

Hearing the concern in her friend's voice, the Werecheetah smiled gratefully. Morbidly, she idly wondered where she would have been if she had not known her friend. 'I'd probably be dead.' She thought to herself, closing her eyes and practically shuddering in dread.

Ranma-chan blinked as Grave Digger closed her eyes and shuddered for a few moments. "Grave? What's wrong?" She asked, worriedly, especially as Grave opened her eyes, a wild and distant look to them. That definitely wasn't the look of the girl that she had gotten to know over the course of the last couple of months.

Grave Digger shook her head as the memories started to vanish. Looking at her friend, hers, not Britanny's, not Gina's, and especially not Brianna's, but hers, she smiled and hugged the redhead tightly. "Thank you." She said, kissing Ranma-chan on the lips lightly, before laying her head on the redhead's shoulder, uncaring of anyone who may have been looking at them at that moment.

Ranma-chan blinked when Grave kissed her quickly, but, before she could react, the girl broke the kiss and just hugged her and laid her head on the redhead's shoulder. Mentally shrugging, she returned the hug as her friend clung to her for a bit.

After a few minutes, Grave broke the hug and smiled at Ranma-chan. "Thanks, I needed that." She smiled impishly, before turning around suddenly. The redhead was about to ask what she was doing, until a tail came out of nowhere and slapped her in the shoulder. "Tag, you're it." Grave giggled, before running into the park.

Ranma-chan blinked and mock-growled. "Hey! Get back here!" She called out, running after her giggling friend.

(-)

Groaning as he finally woke up, a rather bruised, slightly burned, Genma cracked an eye open, before leaning forward and falling out of an impression, in a brick wall that he had crashed into the previous night, only to land flat on his face. He put his hands to his sides, before pushing up and groaning with extreme exertion. After a few moments of trying, he gave up and let his arms flop to his sides. He didn't know who that girl was, or what she had done to him, all he knew was that it had hurt.

Thinking back on the girl who had done this to him, he didn't see anything that would have indicated that she was a martial artist, at least by the way she walked, nor did he sense any typical aura that martial artists carried around them. She could have been like, Genma shuddered unconsciously, his master and been able to hide it, but he doubted that, after all, she had been glowing, and he had sensed something from her, but what, he wasn't sure.

As he passed out, his only thoughts were that he hoped that some crazy person didn't come by and try to kill him.

Had he been awake for ten more seconds, Genma would've hoped that kids didn't pick up sticks and poke people with them.

To be continued. . .

* * *

Preview of Next Chapter: "Okay, look, Ranma here, well, plot's moving slowly, but that's okay, gives me some time to relax. Huh? What do you mean you want me in this club?" 

1 How many of you think I skipped ahead in time just now? Be honest.

2 I think I'm abusing the sneeze joke.

3 Hmm, maybe THAT'S the reason people pushed Ranma and Akane together in the main series, it was fun watching their reactions, as long as you weren't near them when they blew up.

4 Sound like Nodoka?

Questions? Comments? Let me know people! Though, should I bring Ukyo into this fic or not? Any suggestions as to what could happen in the future? You might not think it, but I DO take people's comments into consideration, if they make sense that is.


	22. 21

Grave's New Life

Chapter 21

Disclaimer: I own nothing! You here me! Nothing! Everything belongs to Rumiko Takahashi-sama, High Lord Fred Perry and Godfather Ben Dunn.

Note: The opening part is dedicated to Light Guard, a fan of the story who made a specific request for the opening part.

* * *

Stretching as she walked down the hallway of the place she called home, the silver haired, bronze skinned young woman known as Genn yawned as she woke up fully. Wearing light blue pajama bottoms and a light gray robe, she yawned again as she woke up entirely. She smiled as she continued walking, thinking about a certain black haired aura mage that she was friends with. 'Friends, and maybe something more.' She giggled to herself, knowing what her psychic senses had picked up from the young mage's head. If only he'd get over his shyness, maybe they could move onto something more interesting with their relationship. She sighed slightly, wondering why humans had to be so difficult with their emotions. There was control, and then there was repression. Genn shook her head, wondering why humans, with their incredibly short life span, held back so many emotions. True, you had to keep them in check, but that didn't mean sealing them up when it came to others, did it? 

As she came into the living room, Genn blinked as she saw her closest friend and former lover, back when she could actually shift into a male form, work furiously on a laptop. "Brianna? This a good time?" She asked, slightly worried that her friend had gone off the deep end after having the evil version of her get free and get away. (1)

The blonde young woman, wearing gray biking shorts and a white tank-top, jumped slightly, before turning around and breathing out in relief. "Oh, Genn, you surprised me." She said, before turning back to her computer screen. "Just looking some stuff up."

The bronze-skinned woman sighed and shook her head, before walking up to the table and sitting down next to Brianna. "So, what are you. . ." Genn stopped what she was saying as she looked on the computer screen. "Searching for Werecheetah sightings? You think she might be on Earth?"

Sighing, the Lycanthropoid looked at her friend and nodded tiredly. "Yeah, I doubt she'd be in any of the other realms out there." Though Brianna wouldn't mind it if her evil side ended up in the Undead Realm and had to deal with those perverted skeletons for awhile. Might take the fight out of her, or just get her out of the way for a long, long time.

Genn grimaced as she picked up some of Brianna's surface thoughts. "Brianna, are you sure that she's still evil? I mean, she did save your life, right?" From what she had heard from the others about that night, Grave Digger had stopped Rook from killing Brianna, so why was the taller blonde so adamant about finding the short Werecheetah.

Brianna sighed and shook her head. "I don't know, Genn, I just don't know. But I need to know where she is, that's all." There were a few other reasons why she needed to know if Grave was still alive, the least of which was finding out just WHY she had been saved when Grave could've let her get killed by Rook's sword. She also needed to know who that guy was that fought Rook and Grave had gotten upset over when he got hurt.

The silver-haired shorter woman shook her head and patted Brianna on the shoulder. "Listen, just," she paused, trying to think of something adequate to say, "don't go overboard too much." She wasn't sure if she was talking about what Brianna would do to Grave if she caught up with the short Werecheetah, or if she was talking about Brianna going overboard with her searching for Grave Digger. "Unless she causes problems, you should probably leave her alone."

Brianna looked at Genn, startled, she knew, deep down, that she should probably let Grave have a chance to live in peace. However, there was underlying tremor of fear that filled her when it came to Grave Digger. Perhaps the memories of what she wanted to do to her sisters when she and Grave were merged were still there, but Brianna wasn't sure. "But, what if she's trying to come back here and harm everyone."

"I," the Raksasha stopped for a moment, in thought, "I highly doubt it. Something about the way she was acting when she saved you from what Gina told me." She shook her head. "Please, Brianna, let her be?" True, they might regret it later on, but Genn just hoped her gut instincts were right on this about Brianna's dark side.

Nodding, the blonde sighed. "I'll try, Genn." She said, before reaching over to the computer and pushing the auto shut down button.

Had she looked at that moment, she would have seen a tabloid article on animal people in Japan.

Genn smiled and blushed as her stomach growled. "Guess it's time to eat." She laughed when Brianna's stomach growled in response. "Okay, time to get some food."

Brianna nodded; she hadn't gotten anything to eat in at least twelve hours after all.

(---)

Meanwhile, in Japan, a certain professor was sitting in front of a flashing computer screen; the rest of the room was fairly dark, save for a lamp on the desk that his computer was on. On the screen was something called "The Power of Steam", which was mostly a light blue screen with animated pictures of steam and what it could do. Cracking his knuckles, Steamhead turned to the side and held up his steam-powered digital camera (it only weighed forty pounds), before pulling out a connection cord and plugging it into the camera, and then into the computer. He smiled as a few pictures popped up on his computer screen. Double-clicking on the picture of a blue-eyed, black haired Asian youth, the good professor of steamology started typing some comments about the person. "Hmm, decent fighter that eats a lot, nice kid." Steamhead muttered to himself, before uploading another picture that popped up right under the first one. "Usually seen with this little cutie, more-than-likely his girlfriend." He said to himself, making a thumbnail picture of a certain petite Werecheetah. He thought it was weird that her name was apparently "Grave", but he was in no real position to talk, not that it stopped him from thinking about her slightly unusual name.

After a few more lines, Steamhead nodded, before posting the pictures and his comments about his time in Japan to his website. He just knew that the people back in Quagmire would love to know how he was doing and all the interesting people that he had met.

After shutting down the program and the computer, he stood up and stretched. "Well, better get that test together for tomorrow then."

(----)

In New York a promising young tabloid reporter blinked as he came across something interesting from Japan. "Animal people?" He said to himself. "This could be my big break!" He said, before quickly typing up some sort of report on his computer, which was quite certainly faked without any regard to the facts, before sending it across the internet. (2)

(----)

As she slept, Grave, in light blue pajamas, sneezed lightly, before rolling over. A small smile adorned her face as she started to purr contentedly, her tail twitching back and forth slightly, moving the blankets that she was under slightly.

A few minutes later, she cracked an eye open, before sitting up and groaning. Looking around tiredly, she got up and padded out of the room. Padding her way down the hallway, she stopped in the kitchen, before opening a cabinet, grabbing a glass and walking over to the refrigerator to grab some milk. (3)

A few minutes later, she walked out of the kitchen, before padding back down the hall. However, she padded past her room and over to Ranma's room. Opening the door, she smiled as she saw him sleeping on his bed, she purred lightly as she saw he wasn't wearing a shirt to sleep, her purring increased slightly as she noticed him laying against the wall, leaving plenty of room in his bed for another person.

Grave then slipped into the room, before closing the door, which brushed against the latch, before openingup slightly,and tip-toeing across the room, before sliding under the blankets and laying down next to Ranma. She purred lightly as he moved in his sleep, pulling her into a hug and cuddling against her. Closing her eyes, the petite Werecheetah wrapped her arms around Ranma, before drifting off to a peaceful sleep.

As she slept, her tail moved and curled around Ranma's legs semi-tightly. (4)

(---)

The next morning, Nodoka, dressed in a red robe, yawned as she walked down the hall, intent on making breakfast for her manly son and that cute Neko-tama. (5)

She blinked as she saw Ranma's door open. The sun wasn't up yet, and her son didn't usually get up unless he had to or wanted to train, and even then he wasn't up until just before dawn at the earliest. Stepping over to it, she peeked into the room and smiled as she saw the scene in front of her, Grave was cuddling right up to her son, with Ranma on his back, and Grave partly sleeping on top of him, her head nestled into the crook of his neck and shoulders, her son's left arm over Grave's shoulders, holding her to him as they slept.

Tip-toeing away from the door and the touching scene, the older redhead was so proud of her manly son that she decided to make an extra-large breakfast, just for him and that Neko-tama. She sighed, a far-a-way look in her eyes as she aimlessly wandered into the kitchen. She just hoped that this meant something and wasn't blind hope on her part.

Even if it was just blind hope, the Saotome matriarch doubted that either would mind if she gave them a push in the right direction. Although, if she tried to hard, she was almost certain that those two would dig in their heels, oppose the idea and she'd never get her grandchildren before she was in her mid-forties.

(---)

Around an hour later, just as the sun cracked over the horizon, Ranma groaned as he cracked his eyes open. Moving his left arm, he blinked as it ran over something soft, fuzzy and really warm. Blinking several times, his eyes widened slightly as he saw who was in his bed with him. 'What the? When did she..?' He asked himself, trying to figure out when she had slipped into his bed last night. He tensed up slightly as she stretched out by extending her arms and legs, before arching her back, her hips going straight up for a moment, before she lowered them. The pleasant yowl that escaped from her mouth caused him to shudder slightly, the fear that he had experienced from the Neko-ken popping back up in his mind.

Grave lifted her head, blinked a few times, before yawning loudly. "Uhh, hi, Ranma." She smiled.

"Ah, hi, Grave." He chuckled slightly, unsure of what to say. It wasn't the first time that he had woken up with her sleeping next to him, but this was the first time that it had happened and he didn't recall when the petite Werecheetah crawled into bed with him.

Grave took away any chance Ranma had to say anything when she leaned forward and kissed him on the lips. Smiling into the kiss, her tail wagged back and forth slowly behind her.

Ranma blinked a couple of times, before mentally shrugging and returning the kiss. If she didn't care, why should he? She was the one kissing him, why should he try to fight against it?

After a couple of minutes, the two broke the kiss with a gasp. Grave giggled as they recovered their breath. "Morning." She smiled at him cutely.

His face flushing, Ranma nodded. "Yeah, morning." He didn't know what brought her to kiss him, but he didn't really care about that. In fact, it felt pretty darned good, in his opinion.

Grave moved around so that she was sitting on the bed, before stretching her arms over her head and leaning back, getting the morning kinks out of her joints, causing a couple of them to pop and crack.

Ranma watched as Grave's stretching caused her shirt to pull up and back, revealing her abdomen to him, her shirt outlining her pert breasts perfectly to him. All he could do was stare, quite a bit, before she relaxed and lowered her arms.

Blinking, the petite girl wondered why her best friend was staring at her stupidly. She then smirked at him, before hugging him and rubbing her forehead against his. "Keep this up, and I might think you want a little more." At his confused look, she mentally sighed, but kept her smile on her face. "Never mind, but you shouldn't stare like that; someone might get the wrong impression." She winked, before getting up and off the bed, and running out of the room, leaving a flustered and slightly confused Ranma in the bed. (6)

After a few minutes, Ranma shook his head to clear it, before getting up and putting some loose clothing on. His head was so mixed up with the different signals going through it; he knew that if he worked out some, he might as confused as ever, but at least he'd feel better about it without having to think about it. (7)

Later that day. . .

Sighing as he walked to the gym, Ranma wondered why the heck the gym teacher had called him in so early in the morning. Coming up to a wooden door with a white window that was almost impossible to see through, so as to let anyone who was inside some privacy, Ranma grabbed the door-knob before turning it and letting himself in.

As he looked inside, the martial artist was slightly surprised as the only things he saw was a desk in the middle of the room, a couple of chairs in front of it, a small rotating fan on the top, along with a few papers laying about on top of it.

Behind the desk was the school's gym teacher, a blonde-haired, brown-eyed young man, fairly muscled, who was wearing a black muscle shirt, and leaning back as he was with his legs, which were also fairly muscled, crossed and resting on the top of the table, revealing that he was wearing gray pants and white shoes. (8)

His over-all appearance, as best one could tell, gave off one that said he was in good shape and fairly athletic, though Ranma didn't feel anything special about him. Compared to G'nolga and his old man, this guy wouldn't even be a half-ways decent workout.

The man looked up and smiled as he saw the person there. "Ah, Saotome-san, glad you could make it so early this morning." He said jovially, before taking his legs off the top of his desk and planting them onto the floor with a slightly heavy thud.

"You're the one who called me." Ranma shrugged, wondering why the guy was acting so surprised to see him. People were crazy that way.

The teacher nodded. "True, I needed to ask you for some help." Seeing the student in front of him blink a few times, he continued to explain. "As you probably know, there's an inter-school sporting event coming up later this week."

"Yeah? So?" The martial artist asked, wondering why he was being asked about some stupid school event that wouldn't even take a fraction of his concentration to deal with. It wasn't like anyone in any nearby school had the ability to deal with him. Ranma honestly didn't think anyone could be anywhere near as tough as Ryoga or G'nolga.

The gym teacher nodded, before clearing his throat. "Well, remember that day not too long ago when you and that unusual person were fighting?"

"Yeah?" He asked, wondering why the teacher was bringing it up now. If it was truly important, wouldn't it have been brought up sooner?

"Well, after seeing how well you were able to fight there, I was asked to have you help out the school for the event." Seeing Ranma blink, the teacher continued. "You see, the martial arts club is a member short to participate and the guys that are able to participate have been looking forward to competing for some time now." He stopped, waiting for a response from the student in front of him.

"There's a limit?" Ranma asked, blinking stupidly.

"Bare minimum. You need at least six people per team." He sighed, before continuing, "And while there are over thirty people in the martial arts club, only five of them are able to make it to the tournament."

"So, why can't they all make it?" It wasn't like he wasn't going to at least consider it, but, at the very least, the other people who were in the martial arts club could actually go and show up.

"Well, they would. But you see, three of the top eight members, which were going to be in the event, had to drop out. One got sick, one broke his ankle and the last one had to leave town with his parents for a week."

Sweat-dropping, Ranma just stared in slight shock. He then shook off his shock, thinking that such an event could've happened at any time and it wasn't just him. (9)

"Well, anyway, while our members are good, we're down a member and we need someone who can fill in. Considering what we all saw you do when you were attacked. . ." The teacher trailed off, hoping that Ranma would pick up.

"Uh, yeah, so why can't someone else take their spot?"

The teacher groaned and shook his head. "If someone could've I wouldn't have asked you to show up today." He said, sighing. "Will you please show up for the event and help our martial arts team out?"

"Why didn't you ask that in the first place?" Ranma asked him. When the teacher sighed, he shook his head. "Never mind, I'll help."

"You will?" The teacher asked, his eyes lighting up.

Ranma nodded. He did say he was, so why didn't the guy believe him the first time?

* * *

To Be Continued. . . 

Preview of Next Chapter:

"Hey, Grave here! Well, that was a boring chapter!"

"Hey, Grave."

"RANMA!" (Insert sounds of someone being pounced on by an overly eager Werecheetah.)

"Oooomph! Anyway, going to be at the school tournament."

"Not without me, you're not."

"Um, okay, I guess."

Note: Sorry this took so ungodly long to get out. Started a new job and got hooked on a few games in Real Life.

Hope you all enjoyed this.

(1) Yes, Genn and Brianna WERE lovers, until something happened back in the Black and White Series, see, Grave Digger blasted Genn with raw magical energy. Shortly after that, Genn was never able to turn back to her Neutral or Male forms. Being a Raksasha, Genn's a natural shape-shifter; of course, being the daughter of a Djinni makes it a little easier to shape-shift. From what I understand, the magical energy that she was hit with made her shape-shifting unstable, and thus, only in more recent issues, Genn's only able to take on female forms from now on.

(2) Just like most of the mainstream reporting out there.

(3) Do I REALLY need to put the details in for this?

(4) Why did Grave do this? Maybe she couldn't sleep? Or maybe she just wanted to cuddle? You decide for yourself. I ain't telling.

(5) Oh wow, she wore something OTHER than a Kimono!

(6) Kinda mean, huh?

(7) Sounds like him, huh?

(8) I figure that since he's a gym teacher, he'd get more lee-way than most.

(9) In a few years, he'll look back and curse himself for being so naïve


	23. 22 A

Grave's New Life

Chapter Twenty Two

Part 1

Disclaimer: Ranma, Grave, Steamhead and others are owned by Rumiko Takahashi-Sama, High Lord Fred Perry and Godfather Ben Dunn respectively.

Note: Real Life's been a pain in the rear, literally. Time to write this went down to minimal this summer. At least now I can use the computer whenever I'm not working.

* * *

Groaning as he sat in the vehicle that most people had the audacity, though he didn't know what that meant exactly, to call a train, Ranma leaned back in his chair and frowned. Darned train was so crowded at the moment he felt like he was tied up and then thrown in the river, just without the water. Honestly, if he knew where to go, he could probably get there before this train did. Even if he didn't, at least he wouldn't feel so cramped.

"Honestly, it's not that bad." His companion next to him said, exasperated, though she felt just as cramped as he did. It wasn't as if it was eighty outside with humidity up towards ninety percent in a bus with no fan, no air-conditioning and the windows just wouldn't come down, a fur coat on the body and having to wear clothing on top of the fur coat. As well as seats that were harder than stone to sit on while on said bus for over three hours.

"I know, I know, Grave, I just don't like sitting on this train." He groused, he'd rather not have to deal with the cramped space. If he was given a map, he could've gotten to the place quicker than this train was taking at that moment. Well, he'd at least be able to feel his elbows and not feel like a sardine.

Rolling her eyes, Grave, wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt, bent over, reaching under the seat and grabbed a small bag that was on the floor, before pulling something out of it and slapping it playfully on Ranma's chest. "Here, read something before you drive everyone insane."

Blinking as he took it, Ranma, in a green shirt and black pants, looked at Grave. "So, where'd you get the Manga?" Not that he was really complaining, at least it would give him something to do for the next hour.

"Picked it up yesterday with your mom while shopping." She replied, not letting him know just what they were shopping for. The Lycanthropoid flushed as she thought about the trip. She had thought Gina and Britanny were kinky. They had absolutely _nothing _on Nodoka. She didn't even want to know what half of those... "Accessories" were for either. (1)

Shrugging, Ranma opened the manga and looked it over. Sword fighting, martial arts moves, and some stuff in the past. At least it was interesting. Well, that and the situations that scarred guy would get himself into were quite funny. At least he could ignore the cramped space of the train for awhile. (2)

Shaking her head to clear her thoughts, Grave Digger smiled and closed her eyes while leaning back into her seat, trying to relax a little. She honestly didn't know why the coach let her ride with, but she sure wasn't complaining about it. Even if her going with did help school spirit, she was only really there for Ranma, and no one else. She wondered if the school system was more lax in Japan over certain things. Or maybe people were just too used to seeing weirdness all around them too much. Either one would probably be true. (3) (4)

Several of the students standing nearby looked at Ranma and Grave and felt some jealousy towards the pigtailed pugilist, mostly because he had such a cute looking girl as a girlfriend and they didn't. (5) (6)

A fairly large boy turned to the side to look at the two. "Say," he began, causing Ranma to look up and close the manga he was reading, "you nervous about the tournament?" The green-eyed boy asked, slightly nervous. It wasn't well known, but the tournament was a free-for-all for all involved. Any style of fighting could be used, as long as it wasn't lethal. It wasn't exactly a well-kept secret, but not everyone knew about it.

Shrugging, the aforementioned teen shook his head slightly. "Not really. Should I be?" He asked, wondering what the big deal was. It was just a school event. It wasn't something incredibly important. Like beating the stuffing out of Ryoga the next time he showed up before he got splashed with cold water again and turned into his cursed form.

The bigger teenager nodded slowly. "I think so; I heard that Furinkan High has a Kendo artist that's so good with his stick that it's said he can cut through anything. And that's just the rumors." Left unsaid was the talk of dementia and other mental problems that said Kendo person had. Personally, the bigger teenager didn't believe it.

A darker-skinned, brown-eyed and thinner boy took that moment to speak up from the other side of Grave Digger. "Not only that, I heard that their school managed to convince a new girl to join them this year, I heard she was as strong as a gorilla, at least." He exclaimed. He blinked when he heard some giggling from in front of him. Looking at Grave, he blinked a couple of times. "Say, are you going to enter the tournament?" He asked seriously.

"Hmm?" Grave asked, wondering why he would ask that question to her. "No, I'm not going to enter." She answered. It wasn't as if she was a student of the school in the first place. "Besides, I don't fight." She paused for a moment, "Unless I have to." She added as an after-thought.

The boy nodded slightly. "Okay…" He said, trailing off. He wondered why she wasn't going to enter. There was this… Pervasive aura that surrounded the girl, it made her have a presence that was bigger than what should have been possible. His Kempo sensei had told him that he had a powerful sixth sense, even if it was unrefined.

Grave shrugged, she wondered why he had asked, but that was fine with her. Leaning back into the seat, she closed her eyes and waited for the ride to be over. Ranma was right, the ride did suck.

One hour later…

Grave stretched as she and Ranma walked by the open field where the tournament was going to take place. "Wow… Lots of room." She said, looking at the ring, which was about three-fourths the size of a basketball court. Though, she wondered why it was so big. It wasn't as if there was going to be insanely powerful martial arts or magic techniques used, causing the ring to be destroyed in one shot or something.

Nodding and looking around, her best friend nodded as he saw the bleachers, set several feet away from the ring created two semi-circles around the area. "Yeah…" Ranma said as he looked at a couple teams that were in the area. Nothing too impressive, so far, though, he was ready, just incase someone sprung a surprise on him. Like actually being able to take a hit from a fifty-pound rock and stay on their feet.

Nodding, the Lycanthropoid motioned towards where the rest of their team was. Well, more Ranma's team than hers, she was just there to watch and give support. She knew that Ranma wasn't going to have too many problems. After all, she highly doubted that anyone in the tournament could actually fight a teleporting undead, get stabbed and come out of it okay, well, mostly okay. She shook her head to clear those unpleasant memories, the last thing she needed was to get depressed and worry the people around her. Well, okay, the absolute last thing she needed was her "sisters" to show up and start a fight with her and cause mass destruction and carnage that was probably going to be worse than what had happened awhile back.

She was shaken out of her thoughts when she felt someone poking her in the shoulder. Blinking, she turned her head and saw Ranma looking at her with some impatience in his eyes. "Hmm?" She wondered why he looked to be in a hurry.

"Come on, we're over there." He said, pointing to an open area where those two guys that were talking to them earlier were at.

Blinking, the Lycanthropoid followed Ranma as he led her to where the rest of the team was at. She was glad that she was wearing as normal clothing as possible, barring her tail, it kept people from staring at her and wondering just what she was.

"Hey you two, the coach gave us the match-ups for the first round while you were gone." The rather large fellow that had sat behind them was giving them a red sheet of paper for them to look over. On it were which teams were going to face which ones during the tournament. "We got lucky. We don't have to face Furinkan in the first round." He said, breathing out a sigh of relief.

"Well, you've got to fight this team called 'Koaltz'." Grave pointed out as she looked over the sheet. "Then if you win, you'll have to face Furinkan, if they win."

The heavy-set kid winced. "Yeah, they'll win. Their kendo fighter's one of the best fighters in the country. I heard that he's almost completely unbeaten." Seeing the two blink at him curiously, he elaborated. "Apparently there's this girl on their team that can beat him up pretty easily. No one knows if he lets her win or if she's just that good." He shrugged. Either way, he knew his team couldn't compete with that. He highly doubted that their stand-in was good enough to face over fifty people, fight and actually win every day.

Ranma shrugged it off and didn't think much of it. He hadn't seen anyone since he had gotten there that was anywhere near good enough to beat him. He could have been wrong though, if anyone was like his old man, they could hide in plain sight and not be noticed by anyone, unless they wanted to be seen. His old man had said it was something all the better martial artists could do. Heck, Genma had told him that some people were good enough to be standing right in front of others and be completely invisible to everyone around them, without trying to be.

Grave sighed. She wouldn't feel so nervous, but there was a nagging feeling at the back of her mind that was telling her something big was going to happen, and happen soon. What, she had no clue. At least she didn't think someone was going to show up and kill her. Maybe someone from another team, but not her; though for some reason that didn't fill her with too much confidence.

"Shouldn't be too bad." Ranma muttered to himself. He highly doubted that there'd be any problem with any of the other teams. It wasn't as if everyone that was in the area went on training journeys for long periods of time.

And why did he just feel as if someone was watching him, smiling and giving him a pat on his back?

"Hey, you okay?" The larger teen asked his teammate as he looked around, eyeing the surroundings as if someone was hiding just out of sight and was teasing him. He looked around as well, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.

Shaking his head to clear it, Ranma nodded at the other guy. "Yeah, just thought I felt something was all."

(----)

"Well, this is interesting."

A second voice spoke up. "It's only interesting because you don't remember this from before."

The first one was silent for a while, before agreeing with the second being. "Indeed. I never recalled this happening. Might just be faulty memory though."

"... Faulty memory? You?"

"Okay, okay, time seems to have changed, but how much, I'm not sure about yet."

The second voice had nothing to say to that. (7)

(----)

"Honestly, Uncle Saotome, I don't know why you came with." A slightly frustrated teenaged girl said as she sighed. Running a hand through her long, dark hair, she looked at the older, and much larger, man with some disdain. He had come with to give her support; at least, that's what he said. She probably would have bet good money, if she had any, that he was just there because her father wasn't home, having a town council meeting to attend, and her eldest sister wasn't home, having left to visit some friends of hers.

Looking at her "uncle", she wondered why he always seemed to wear that bandanna around his head. It wasn't like anyone was going to be fooled into thinking he actually had a head of hair. Then again, Genma Saotome didn't seem to be all that smart a person.

The man just looked at her and shook his head. "Is it so hard to believe that I would come here and give you support?" He asked. It wasn't like he had anything better to do that day anyway, and, well, he knew the girl liked martial arts, he might as well see how good she really was. It also gave him an excuse to get out of the house and do something. "What are you worried about?" He asked her.

"Nothing." She said, rolling her eyes. It wasn't as if he was her father or anything. If he was, she'd probably deny it every chance she got. She wasn't exactly sure why, either. Maybe it had something to do with the vibes she got off of him when he was obviously thinking about something and the way his eyes would narrow in thought. It just made him look very creepy and evil.

Grumbling something about ungrateful teenagers and how they don't respect their elders, the elder man shook his head and looked around for a place to sit down. Looking around the open area, he saw so little potential that it wasn't funny; nearly no one that was participating had the potential to do little more than get the basics of martial arts mastered in their life-times. His best friend's daughter, though, she had some potential, how much, he couldn't tell.

He blinked as he saw someone with a pigtail walk across the grass on the other side of the ring. Shaking his head and looking more closely, whatever he had seen, wasn't there, or at least, was buried behind a sea of people. 'Wishful thinking.' He thought to himself, knowing that Ranma was gone, all because of that crazy Amazon.

(---)

Raising an eyebrow as her young prodigy sneezed pretty harshly, the aged matriarch wondered what was up with the air on this island. She'd ask if the girl was getting sick, but that would have been just silly; after all, Amazons didn't get sick, outside of 'that time of the month'. Idly, she wondered WHY the outside world called it that; though she privately thought it was called that because when it was 'that time of the month' and Amazons were bothered by males, said males tended to be… Less manly than before.

"Great grandmother, why we no go to fight?" The other Amazon asked in the best Japanese she could manage.

Rolling her eyes, the aged Amazon shook her head. "I told you, this is not something that we should get involved with." Rolling her eyes at her granddaughter's pout, she added, "do you really want to deal with weaklings who won't be able to give you any sort of challenge?" She was immediately gratified to see the purple-haired teen shake her head against that. With that out of the way, the older Amazon turned her head towards the window and thought about how to get her hands on that fat oaf and get the information she needed out of him. If that redhead really was dead and gone, then they wouldn't need to stay in Japan meaninglessly. 'Then again...' She thought to herself, she knew that her great granddaughter rather liked being in Japan, if only for the experience to be outside of the village. After this fiasco was over with, she could see about sending some of their more talented and bright young warriors out into the world.

(---)

Sighing as he saw another person from the other team get defeated by his teammates, Ranma wondered just why he had even bothered to show up at all. There hadn't been any challenge so far, heck; he could have beaten everyone on both teams in his sleep. (8)

Yawning from her position on the ground, the spotted blonde Lycanthropoid would have agreed with Ranma's thoughts, that is, if she could actually read minds. As it stood, she was rather bored with the incredibly low-level fighting that happened here. Heck, there were memories that she had from when...

She frowned, cutting her train of thought off right then and there. Those hadn't been her memories, just the memories of someone else that she had inherited, not ones she had made. 'So what does that make me?' She thought to herself. Memories were what defined a person, without them, how did one know if they really existed or not? (9)

She snapped out of her thoughts as Ranma walked towards the ring. Looking at the person who was going to be his opponent, and she used that term loosely, the Lycanthropoid sweat dropped, the guy was a bit a bean pole, not to mention, what she could "see" through her aural sight, which, even she admitted, was very limited, his opponent wasn't that good. "This should be easy." She muttered to herself, causing that one redheaded guy from the train to look over at her.

"Why do you say that?" He asked, though, privately, he felt the exact same way as she did about this upcoming "fight".

"Just a feeling." She replied, nearly giggling as Ranma kicked his opponent out of the ring in less than ten seconds.

"You were right." The teenager next to her deadpanned. That "fight" took less time to finish than it did for him to tie his shoe-laces in the morning.

(---)

"That was pretty good…" Akane Tendo admitted with some reluctance. She wasn't sure if even she could beat someone, other than that unwanted suitor of hers, that quickly. Then again, that guy's opponent left himself completely wide open for that kick, not something she would do. (10)

She blinked as she turned her head and looked at her "uncle". "Uncle Saotome?" She asked as he sat stiff, staring in shock, his face white, almost as if he had seen a ghost. "Uncle Saotome?" She asked, getting slightly worried. Was there something important that she needed to know?

Genma, on the other hand, could only stare stupidly at the ring, Ranma was… Alive? But not only alive, but he had just won a quick match? When Akane shook him slightly, he shook his head to clear out the confusion. "Wha, what? Where'd he go!" (11)

"Who?"

"Ranma! Where did he go?" The portly man asked, a sense of urgency in his voice and a crazed look in his eyes, causing the teenager to lean back, her eyes slightly wide, from fear or plain creepiness, she wasn't sure. If she had time to think about it, she'd probably say creepiness.

"If you mean the guy that just got done fighting…" Akane trailed off as Genma nodded frantically. "Well, he walked back to his corner and I lost track of him."

"What! NOOO!" The portly man cried to the heavens, causing nearly everyone around him to jump in surprise, and several to scoot away from the obviously insane person. (12)

Across the grassy area, several students looked towards the stands as they heard someone crying out in pure distress and agony. Many of them sweat-dropped as the scream lasted for several minutes, until there was a loud slap of some type, causing the noise to die off a fast and painful death.

"What was that all about?" Someone asked, causing most everyone to shrug as they didn't know either.

(---)

Biting back a yawn, Grave Digger wondered just why this day was taking so long. Sure there were lots of schools there that day, but did it need to take this long? Okay, so she was a little impatient, but she didn't get terribly excited when watching people beat the living snot out of each other. Well, she did get worried when Ranma fought, but she couldn't help it, he was her best and only friend in the world. She could count Nodoka as one of her friends; yet, she couldn't help but think that Nodoka was a little closer to her than that, like a family member or something similar.

(---)

He was close, so close, he could feel it. All he needed to do was get past this maze of trees and he'd be right where he needed to be. Growling as a branch slapped him across the face, he swore that as soon as he got out of this maze, he'd get an axe and chop down every last tree in the blasted maze!

"Mommy? Why is that guy walking around in circles?" A young boy asked as he and his mother were walking by an abandoned lot with four trees in the center of it.

The woman shook her head and walked off with her son when the person turned to look at them. "It's just a lunatic, ignore him."

Said lunatic growled lightly and shook his head before taking his first step out of that "maze" in several days. Looking around, he nodded, at least he was in civilization again, and not in some smelly, dinky forest. "Ranma, when I find you, I shall make you pay for humiliating me in front of all those people." The eternally lost boy growled as he walked west.

The mere fact that he had meant to go north never really bothered him before, so why should it now?

Grumbling to himself about curses that caused him to hear voices and make him think he was crazy, Ryoga wondered what he had done to get a horrible, vengeful curse like the one he had. He wasn't a bad person; at least he didn't think he was, so why was he saddled with such a horrible curse on himself? At least he could defend himself, the back of his mind noted. He could have had a curse like a toad or something similiar that couldn't defend itself properly.

Shivering, Ryoga feared he may have ended up in one of those weird places that enjoyed toads as a meal and tried to eat him if he had a curse like that. The only good thing of his curse was the fact that he was still human. He lifted his head as he came close to a school. "Huh? How'd I get here?" He wondered aloud, not that it mattered; he hardly knew where he was at any given moment anyway. He heard noise from somewhere nearby causing him to shrug and head off to those noises. All he hoped was that he got there before everyone took off.

It wouldn't be the first time that he had gotten lost while trying to get around a building.

Awhile later...

"This is boring." Grave complained, sighing as she sat in the grass. She was so bored. She'd rather be traveling around the city, talking with Ranma, going shopping, heck, having an adventure in the mall would've been more exciting than this was.

Next to her, Ranma shrugged, the next round was about to start with their team facing that Furinkan team he heard so much about. Not that it was going to be a problem for him, everyone's ability was far below his, it wasn't funny. Maybe some of them were hiding their true abilities, he wasn't sure, but he was damn sure he'd be able to beat most everyone without any problems. Maybe if someone like Ryoga showed up he'd have some problems. (13)

"Hey, we'll be done soon, Grave." Ranma said, turning to her and smiling. "Ain't like it's going ta be much of a problem for me." He didn't see anyone with anything close to the skill and ability to beat him yet. Maybe that one guy that spoke funny was hiding some of his real skill, but if he was, Ranma was pretty sure that it wasn't all that much.

He smirked as he walked up to the ring, well, there wasn't much more to call it than that. As he got close to the ring, he noticed someone that he didn't think he'd see for a long time. "Pops!" He asked, with wide eyes as he saw a face that he hadn't seen in at least two months.

"Boy!" Genma asked, his eyes wide, and incredibly surprised to see his son.

"What are YOU doing here!" They both asked at the same time, their eyes wide open as they stared at each other. The sight was quite comical, a slightly over-weight man wearing a Gi and a bandanna, staring bug-eyed at a teenager, who was average height, black hair, and staring back in shock.

Sitting up with a start, the petite Lycanthropoid stared in shock at Genma. After what had happened the last time she saw him, she didn't think she'd ever see his portly ass ever again. (14)

Quickly getting to her feet, she briskly walked up to the ring, ready to tear that jerk a new one if he tried anything to hurt her Ranma. The mere fact that she thought of Ranma as hers never really crossed her mind at that moment. Just as she got there to start an "inquiry" as to why he was there, a new voice spoke up.

"Hey, what's going on here!" A female voice spoke up. The three looked up at the arena to see a girl with brown eyes, long brown hair, and dressed in a white Gi, staring at the three with a slight frown on her face. She blinked when she saw Grave standing there. It wasn't as if she knew who Grave Digger was, but the mere fact that there was someone who was walking out in public with fur on their body made her more than curious. After all, it wasn't every day that furry people showed up. (15)

"Uh, nothing." Ranma said to the girl as it looked like nothing insane was going to happen, at least at that moment. It was probably wishful thinking, but he was sure that nothing bad would happen. (16)

Shaking her head, the other teen nodded and wondered who that furry teenager was. "The next round is ready to get going." Left unsaid was the fact that she wanted to get it done and hopefully away from a certain samurai as possible. (17)

Nodding, Ranma walked up to the ring, relaxing more as he did so. At least he wouldn't have to deal with something he couldn't deal with. Like trying to figure out how to deal with his mother when she got that weird look in her eye, which usually happened after she saw him and Grave together. He blinked as he saw a tall teenager with short brown hair, a blue samurai robe, and wearing nothing on his feet standing there, sniffing on a red flower with his eyes closed. "How truly boorish," he commented, his voice sounding pompous and bored with the situation. Opening his eyes, he smirked lightly, his brown eyes showing nothing but contempt and condensation for his opponent. "The mere fact that someone such as myself must fight a low-borne commoner such as thee..." He trailed off, shaking his head, before tossing away his flower. "Prepare yourself, knave, for I am the undefeated new star of high school fencing. I am Upperclassman Tatewaki Kuno." He paused for a moment to level a previously unnoticed wooden sword at Ranma. "But my peers call me The Blue Thunder of Furinkan High." He said, taking a pose, his stick pointed straight up as lightning struck in the back-ground.

"Nice trick." Grave commented from the side, before turning and kicking Genma in back as he tried to turn and get away from her. The fact that she used a bit of magic to enhance the strength of the kick was of minor consequence, as was the fact that he was fell onto his face a couple feet away.

Sweat-dropping as the taller person babbled on and on about who he was and how he was, apparently, getting something bad done to him by having to fight with someone he thought was lower than him. Though, Ranma just thought he was complaining about something that made no sense to complain about.

"Now..." the Kendoist said, lowering his weapon to take a traditional kendo stance, "who might you be?"

"Me?" Ranma smirked. "I'm Ranma Saotome of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts."

This declaration caused a few gasps from a few people, two of which were really interested in hearing about this. 'Anything Goes? That's my school...' Akane thought to herself from the side-lines, before his last name sank in totally. 'Wait a minute!' She looked at Genma as he got back to his feet. 'Are they related?' She asked herself in wonderment.

"So..." the teenager trailed off slowly, "you share the same school as the beauteous Akane Tendo." He closed his eyes slowly and in his mind, he knew what he needed to do to get rid of the mistake in front of him. "Have at thee!" He called out, rushing forward with his wooden sword held high.

Ranma blinked and wondered what the heck the other guy's problem was with him. Leaning to the right, Ranma smirked as he saw the older teen swing downward, only to gawk in amazement as he missed. That amazement soon turned to determination as he turned to face the pigtailed martial artist. "So, you have some minor skills. But that shall not save you from my punishment!" He called out, swinging with such grace, such skill, such power that no mortal on earth could ever hope to stop his fearsome attack.

Yet, that knave kept dodging and avoiding his powerful and fast attacks as if he were dodging a slowly dodge a baseball or something similar. 'How, how can someone as low borne as this do this? Could, could he be? No, he can't be superior to me.' Those thoughts ran through the Kendoist's head as he took another swing at the dodging martial artist.

Ranma decided that he needed to end it quickly as that last swing came pretty close to actually grazing him. The next instant, when the upperclassman had pulled his weapon back, his foot lashed out, connecting with the swordsman's head, causing his head to snap back slightly just before his body left the ground, only to travel in a small, spiral arc that caused him to come crashing down on his head.

Groaning as he saw stars, literally, float around his eyes for a moment, Kuno groaned and rolled to his knees, before standing up. "I... Fight on!" He declared as he got to his feet and held his wooden sword up high, causing more than a few people to blink in surprise as he once again, charged his opponent.

"Gee, wasn't that enough?" Ranma asked, before shaking his head and dodging a swing that would've definitely given him a headache if it had connected. Ranma hopped up as Kuno took another swing, this time at his ankles. "You know, you could hurt someone."

"Yes, you." Kuno said as the knave jumped up to look him eye-to-eye.

"Yeah, whatever. Bye." He said, before punching the older boy in the jaw and sending him flying out of the ring. Which wasn't too hard as the edge was only a foot or so away from where they were fighting. (18)

* * *

To Be Continued...

Next time: "Hey, Grave here... Well, this wasn't too bad..."

"It's YOU!"

"What? EEEK!"

Sorry for the cliff-hanger here, in addition, I appologize for how long it took to get this out. The whole summer stunk trying to get this out.

Notes:

(1) Hee hee, Grave can't handle some of Nodoka's… "Ideas"

(2) This should be obvious to most people what the manga is.

(3) Again, I know next-to-nothing about Japanese school systems and how they work. So if I got stuff wrong, I apologize.

(4) Heh, too used to seeing weirdness is probably correct, no?

(5) Two points if you know what a pugilist is.

(6) Ranma wouldn't say that she's his girlfriend though.

(7) Now, who is this?

(8) Ain't that a fact?

(9) Sorry about the philosophy thing here, just something to make you think.

(10) Of course not!

(11) Stare stupidly? I think he actually has some intelligence to stare like that!

(12) Probably not insane, just obsessive-compulsive. Heh.

(13) Be careful what you wish for...

(14) Check chapter 19 for more details.

(15) If it was, she'd be on Jade.

(16) You can almost hear the thunder rolling, no?

(17) Technically, Grave is 22 to 23 physically, just short. So most people think she's younger than what she really is. Nodoka sees a 19 to 21 year old. Ranma and Akane both see a 17 to 18-year-old. Genma's too afraid to make any sort of opinion.

(18) You'd be surprised at how fast that edge can sneak up on someone, especially if they've been knocked down already.


	24. 22 B

Grave's New Life

Chapter 22

Part 2

Disclaimer: I don't own Grave Digger, Ranma, Steamhead or anyone else that may or may not show up do not belong to me, they belong to their talented creators.

Just a reminder here... I wrote the next chapter after this one. So, you got two chapters to read at once.

Work problems have popped up here and there.

* * *

Shaking his head, Ranma smirked, that was the best that Furinkan had to offer? If that was the best around, then he knew he wouldn't have any problems with the rest of this tournament. He turned and started to walk off the stage, already knowing that he won. It wasn't as if someone would hold a grudge for losing that easily. 

From his position on the ground, several things went through the fallen Kendoist's fragile mind at that moment. First of all, he knew he couldn't have lost. Being an unbeatable warrior made that impossible by any stretch of the imagination. So it had to be something else. 'How?' He thought to himself, there was no one on the Earth that was good enough to defeat his blade. The only explanation was some dark forces in play. "So, a master of the dark magiks has set foot on these hallowed lands to challenge a noble Samurai like myself." He said softly as he stood up slowly, glaring at the knave who thought he had bested him. The pain that was going through his body at the moment was a bit too much for him to carry out what he wanted to do to the fool knave.

Blinking as his opponent stood up, Ranma could have sworn that he heard something about dark magic, but he wasn't sure. He shook his head as his former opponent limped away from the ring. 'What was that all about?' He wondered to himself as he left the stage to go back to his team.

"So, that was the best?" He heard Grave's voice, causing him to look up slightly where the girl was talking to that tall, lanky kid that had been on the train.

The kid sweat-dropped and shook his head. "Thought he was." Was his only reply, he blushed when the girl next to him smirked and giggled before looking at Ranma.

"Hey, good job." Grave smiled as Ranma walked up to her.

Ranma shrugged and smirked. "Wasn't too hard." Not for him at least, had it been difficult, he would've had to use special techniques. He thought about it and mentally shook his head. Nah, that would've been too much. It wasn't like anyone was even half as good as he was.

Rolling her eyes, she shook her head, smirking. She half expected him to say something like that. He could do with less attitude at times, but at least he was nice. 'At least to me and his mom.' She thought to herself. Unlike some people with the same problem.

"Wanna get some food?" He asked as he had nothing to really do until the next round.

Grave blinked at him saying that. Normally it wasn't something he'd ask her, at least, she didn't think so. She was so stunned that she couldn't even tease him about taking her on a "date", even though they weren't doing anything of the sort. "Um, okay..." She said slowly as they walked away.

"Lucky dog." The other teen muttered as he watched the two walk away. The girl was cute and different. He sure wouldn't have minded it if she would've given him more than just a cursorily glance in his direction.

Just a few feet away, Ranma and Grave were talking about what had happened in that fight, if said beating could be called that. "That guy was the best in this area?" He couldn't believe it. Hell, someone that easy wouldn't even last two seconds in a real fight.

Giggling, Grave shook her head at Ranma's dismissal of that fool. That was almost expected of him. Hell, she would've said the same thing about him, being an incredibly easy idiot to beat. "So, Ranma, think you'll win today?" She could guess he was going to.

"Feh, no problem." He smirked, an arrogant grin on his face. Looking away from the girl he was with for a moment, he glanced at the line to the concessions. "Better than this line." He muttered lowly, causing Grave to giggle slightly.

(---)

He was there, he could see people in the area. This was a rarity for him. Usually by the time he got to a place where there were people, he ended up at the place at least a few hours after everyone had left. He smirked darkly and chuckled to himself, seemed like he was actually getting better, at least slightly, with his directions. Now, all he had to do was find someone who could tell him where he was exactly. Maybe he'd be lucky enough to find where he should have been going before everyone disappeared on him.

Even if he didn't, at least people were speaking Japanese. Last time he was in a group of people, they were speaking Chinese.

(---)

"Want to get out of here?" Ranma asked suddenly, yawning as the two sat down under a tree. He wasn't bored, but he figured that sitting around all day just watching fights wasn't that exciting to her. It wasn't as if he really needed to be here, either.

"You that bored?" She asked him, smiling as she took a bite of the delicacy in her possession. "Mmm..." She closed her eyes and smiled as she took another lick of her ice-cream. It was really amazing that they had tuna-flavor

Watching her eat, Ranma couldn't help but feel something wash over him, and it wasn't water. He couldn't describe what he felt at that moment, but whatever it was, he had to admit, he rather liked it.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

The conversation may have continued, but a shadow loomed over the two of them. Looking at the person in question, they were slightly surprised to see that it was that girl from before. "Mind if I sit here?" Akane asked. Seeing them shrug, she did so. These two were different than anyone else here. First was that guy that was apparently related to Uncle Saotome, though she didn't see it herself. Then there was that furry girl. The way she looked made her look quite interesting, that was for sure. Akane sweat-dropped as the two started to eat their ice-cream again. "I saw the way you handled Kuno." She said, looking at Ranma, causing him to stop eating and look at her.

"Yeah?"

Akane nodded. "Not like I couldn't take him easier than you did though." She said, her ego deciding to have a say in the matter at hand. She blinked as the two looked at her, the guy looked almost offended by what she said. "What? It's true. I fight that guy and fifty other guys every day. I don't see you doing that." She didn't see anyone else doing that for that matter.

Grave wondered just where that girl got off saying stuff like that. Sure, she had a point with saying that she beat up on that guy and a bunch others everyday, did she really have to lord it over them like an ego-maniac?

"Really?" Ranma asked, blinking. "Well, it's not too hard. I mean, that guy was pretty easy."

Akane's eye twitched from that comment. "What? Are you saying I'm weak?" She frowned.

Ranma blinked and wondered why she was getting upset with him. "Well, I mean, that guy is. I dunno about you though." He shrugged and wondered why the girl even brought the thing up.

"Forget about it." She said, standing up. "Just don't get over-confident." She said and walked back to the arena, expecting to fight him later. She was obviously expecting to see him in a later round. Not that she would lose, she had no intention of losing today.

Blinking, the pigtailed youth looked at his friend. "What was that about?" He asked. His only response was a shrug of her slender shoulders.

(---)

Kyoji Jumo was a low-rung reporter. He was in his mid-twenties with what looked like bleached-white hair. He wore glasses and wasn't the tallest or most buff person around. But he knew that if he broke a big story, or at least something not boring, he'd be able to go places in the journalistic world. He was an ambitious reporter, but being signed to cover a high school fighting tournament was about as much fun as buying groceries.

Still, he got a few pictures, took a few notes of what was going on. One had to crawl before they could walk, after all. Even if this was annoying. Looking around for something interesting, he blinked upon seeing a girl with pale skin and blonde hair. Normal, it wouldn't have caught his attention, nor would have the tattoo on her face, but way her arms looked white, yet not pale caused him to take a second look. 'What the?' He thought to himself as he noticed something he didn't see before. It was loosely curled around her left leg and twitching slightly every now and again. "What is that?" He asked no one in particular as he made his way over to them, his camera in his possession. Unfortunately for him, the crowd was a bit thick, so getting over to the fre, err, interesting person was going to take some work.

After over ten minutes of fighting his way through the crowd, almost literally in some cases as it seemed like there was a possessed garbage can or something moving around the area. He shrugged it off. He just figured that it was the sheer amount of people that was getting him to think that.

Looking around, he saw his quarry sitting under a tree as a girl with long hair in a Gi was leaving it. He ignored her, she wasn't important. He was closing in on his vic, err, interview subjects. Just before he got there, a youth wearing a brown shirt, a bandanna, cargo pants and had a backpack on his back suddenly charged the two. His instincts were telling him that this was a story. They weren't fighting in the right area, so something had to have been up. Jumo lifted up his camera and turned it on just as the newcomer got close to the two. 'Now this is interesting.' He thought to himself.

(---)

Blinking as he somehow lost the crowd of people, Ryoga looked from side to side and scratched his head. "How'd I get here?" He wondered aloud. Last thing he recalled was getting to the crowd of people, but now he couldn't see any of them. He still heard voices and clamoring, though.

If he had looked behind him, he would've noticed the crowd right behind him talking, mulling about and cheering as things progressed in the fighting area. He shrugged. With his luck no one would've been able to help him at all. A few moments of wandering around with no destination in mind, he happened to see something that he didn't expect to see. His enemy was straight in front of him, sitting down and just eating ice-cream. 'How dare he?' He thought to himself. Here he was, having gone through hell and back just to get back to the city, only to find out his rival was enjoying ice-cream.

A small part of his mind noted that it was stupid to think that Ranma was enjoying things at his expense, but that was shut up by the clouded anger in his head. Growling, he rushed up at Ranma while pulling his umbrella off. "Ranma! You're going to get it!" He yelled out, causing the person in question to look up and jump out of the way as the lost boy's extremely heavy umbrella descended down and smashed the ground he was sitting on a few moments prior.

"Hey! What was that for!" Ranma demanded, frowning as he landed softly. He noted, with the corner of his eye, that Grave had gotten out of there quickly. She was safe at least. "You coulda hurt someone!" He yelled at the lost boy. What the hell was this guy thinking?

Looking around, the Lycanthropoid frowned as she realized that with the way things were at that moment and with the fool attacking them, well, more Ranma than her, but she was nearly killed a couple of times by now. Her tail was uncurled from her leg, allowing her more freedom to move around. "Ranma! We need to get out of here!" Left unsaid was that she didn't want to bring unneeded attention to herself. The last thing she wanted was certain people knowing where she was and coming after her. Seeing Ranma look at her, she motioned for him to lead the idiot away from the people.

Nodding, Ranma got up and smirked at Ryoga. "Come on, let's see you keep up, Lost Boy."

Ryoga twitched and charged after the retreating martial artist. "I'll get you!" He called out. So focused on his target, he didn't notice the cheetah-looking girl running next to his target.

(---)

Grinning to himself as he turned his camera off, Jumo couldn't believe his luck. Not only did he get to prove that there were freaks that were living, but he also got to prove that there was too much violence among kids. Oh, he could just smell the promotion.

The short man turned around, only to stare in shock as the crowd was moving his way too fast for him to move. "Oh heck!" He muttered, just before being ran over by fifty people.

'As soon as I'm better, I'm going to request easier assignments.' He thought to himself as he passed out.

(---)

Ryoga growled as he chased his target, shortly after leaving the lot they were in, Ranma had taken to the rooftops. If that coward thought he could avoid him by going up, he had another thing coming. Gripping his umbrella tightly, he vowed he'd shove it down Ranma's throat if he got the chance.

Smirking as he ran across the rooftops, the pigtailed martial artist looked over his shoulder and was mildly surprised to see that Ryoga hadn't gotten lost yet. The guy was so easy to lose at times that it wasn't even funny. "Hey! You haven't gotten lost yet. Not bad." He called back with a grin on his face. It was rather fun to fight for the heck of it, in his opinion. Being told to for no real reason wasn't any fun.

Jumping from one roof to the next, Ryoga growled out low. "I'm not going to get lost when I'm chasing you!" He called out and jumped up and forward as he noticed his rival jump into an abandoned lot across the street.

When he landed, Ranma blinked as Grave floated down and landed right next to him. "Thought you didn't want to use magic." He said, turning around as Ryoga jumped up into the air and descended on where he was at.

"Wanted to keep up with you." Was her reply. Truth-be-told, she wanted to be there for Ranma, at all times, regardless of what would happen.

"Oh." Was all he said as he and Grave jumped away from a rather fierce umbrella swing into the ground, tip-down, causing the ground to explode outwards. "Gee, Ryoga, you tryin' ta kill someone?" He asked as shrapnel flew out from the crater.

"Yeah! You!" Was the response, followed up by an unidentified flying umbrella from the dust cloud right at Ranma's head.

Side-stepping the weapon, Ranma was forced to jump back as Ryoga rushed in and launched a front kick in an attempt to hit Ranma in the ribs and damage his body enough so that he would win the fight easily. He growled as he missed and his leg was caught by that coward, causing him to lose his balance as his leg was pulled on. A kick to the jaw caused him to fall and land on his back. Ranma had let go of his foot, so he flipped back onto his feet and smirked. "You think that'll be enough to stop me?"

Ranma smirked. "If it was, I wouldn't worry about fighting ya." It was too easy to get in Ryoga's head at times it was funny.

Ryoga frowned and charged at Ranma full on, jabbing at his head with a follow-up upper-cut.

Jumping out of the way, Ranma's eye twitched as he felt a sting of pain in his left arm. He could just hear his old man comment on how he was getting slow and sloppy if that attack managed to land. If he had let those blows actually land, he would've been in trouble. He knew that Ryoga was one of the strongest people he had ever met, probably the strongest person in his age group. Still, the moron didn't have his speed or agility. Made these fights a lot easier.

Grave frowned as she looked at the crater. Ryoga hadn't been in his other form when he made this crater. Looking around, she blinked as she saw the umbrella laying on the ground by some garbage cans. "Hmm..." She slipped around the fight, keeping her eye on it as she made her way over to the umbrella. She grabbed it and planned on using it to flatten the meany for attacking her and Ranma. Her eyes widened as she couldn't even budge the thing. "What the?" She asked herself. This thing was heavy! Grave Digger doubted that even Britanny would've been able to move this around as easily as that idiot could. "Ranma! Be careful!" She called out, worried if he took a single hit from this guy.

"What?" Ranma asked, turning his head for a split-second to look at her.

"An opening!" Ryoga cried out, just before kicking out and landing a solid blow on Ranma's ribs, causing him to slide back, coughing. He grinned, this fight was as good as his.

"Ranma!" Grave's eyes widened, before she growled and looked at Ryoga. "You... You'll pay!" She started glowing, her eyes turning red as she gathered Ethereal energy in the palms of her hands. She planned on making him pay, badly, for hurting her friend.

Ryoga stopped his charge and stared stupidly as the girl started glowing brighter and brighter. 'What the!' He yelled to himself. He could feel, something coming from the girl, it wasn't what he was used to from Ranma, but something far more.

A strong kick to his gut, which knocked him through the air and into the garbage cans, drew his attention away from the girl and to the one who kicked him. "Stupid can!" He yelled out as his head was covered by a metal garbage can. Pushing it off, he growled as banana peels, dried bread and beer cans fell all over him.

Grimacing as he stood up and held his ribs, Ranma shook his head and looked at Grave. "Don't jump in." He said, wincing.

"But, you're hurt!" She said, frowning.

"I'll be fine!" He said as he shook his head to rid himself of the pain. Thankfully his ribs weren't broken. Then he would've really been in trouble.

Ryoga smirked as he stood up and brushed off the debris on his body. The attack had taken him more off-guard than anything else. Course, having a girl start glowing like the Chinese New Year would surprise anyone who didn't know she could do that. "Not too bad." He commented and stood up. That kick had actually knocked the wind out of him. Not that he expected such an attack from the coward.

Shaking his head as he saw Ryoga charge him again, Ranma grinned with more confidence than he was actually feeling at that moment. Jumping up into the air, Ranma mentally smirked as Ryoga jumped up at him, this was his area of mastery.

Ryoga grunted as his kick missed his prey, who had somehow managed to flip around the kick and land both of his feet into his chest. He had enough sense to bring his arms up to block the attack, but it still caused him to hit the ground with a thud and Ranma to go up even higher. Rolling back and onto his feet, he grinned as he pulled off a bandanna. "This'll teach you." He muttered before spinning it a couple of times and throwing it at his nemesis, who had just landed.

"Gwah!" Ranma said eloquently as he had to side-step to the left and bend backwards so that the make-shift throwing stars from taking his head, among other things, off in one shot. He twisted to the right as Ryoga punched at him. "Gee, you could've hurt someone there." He commented as he deflected another punch and jumped over a sweep-kick. Flipping around, his left foot landed on Ryoga's face, knocking him back a few feet and causing him to rub his nose.

"That hurt you know." He said as he rubbed his nose and rushed back at Ranma, ready to break his enemy every way possible.

Grave sighed as she watched the two exchange punches and kicks at a quick pace, their limbs looking like blurs, even to her eyes, and she had Werecheetah DNA in her. She wondered why that new guy kept jumping up into the air when Ranma did. Didn't he realize he would just get knocked back down? 'Apparently not.' She shook her head as Ryoga got kicked back down to the ground almost as soon as he got up into the air.

(---)

Akane looked around and frowned slightly. Where was that guy? She didn't have to face him anytime soon, but the next round would be starting up soon. Not that she really cared, but it might have been nice to have some competition in this tournament. If the guy didn't show, it just meant that she'd have an easier time with everything today. "Not that I care." She muttered to herself.

"Hey! Akane! Looks like rain." One of her classmates said, pointing to the east.

Akane nodded. "Hope it doesn't rain over here." She commented. The last thing they needed was a rain ruining the day.

(---)

Shaking her head to clear the water that poured over her, Grave wondered what the heck was up with the weather. That rain-cloud seemingly just appeared out of nowhere and only lasted just long enough to soak the area around her. Her eyes widened as something just hit her. "Ranma!" She gasped as she took a look at the fight.

Ranma-chan was backing up after that quick shower managed to soak her and Ryoga. Damn, she had nearly forgot how much larger and faster Ryoga was when he got wet.

Ryoga grinned and clenched his fists tightly. Seeing the look in his rival's eyes, well, he knew who was going to win this fight. He charged the smaller redhead, swinging his fists much faster and with more force than before.

The only thing Ranma-chan was grateful for while in her cursed form was the fact that her cursed form was a lot more agile and faster than her male form. Even so, she was barely able to avoid Ryoga's punches and his occasional kicks. Her eyes widened as he managed to get a knee into her gut, sending her flying up and back, completely out of air. 'Dammit.' She thought to herself, she could just hear her old man yelling at her for being sloppy and letting that attack get through.

Her trip through the air was stopped as something grabbed her leg, swung her around in the air a couple of times, before throwing her to the ground hard. She grit her teeth as pain racked her whole body. Damn, that one hurt, she hadn't felt that much pain in awhile. She cracked an eye open to see Ryoga jump up into the air, before coming back down, his fist aiming right at her head. She managed to somersault backwards just before his fist made a crater out of her skull. 'Holy hell.' She thought, panting as she got back to her feet.

Ryoga frowned as he missed and caused a three foot crater. Looking up, he smirked, it was pretty obvious that she was hurting from that knee and toss to the ground. Getting out of the hole he dug, he straightened out. Towering over Ranma-chan, he just smirked, this was going to be easy. His eyes widened as he sensed something from the side. "What the?" Turning his head, his eyes narrowed. "You!" He bellowed and started charging Chi in his large hands, causing them to glow white. "Not this time!" He cried, the energy turning red.

Her eyes were red, her fur was standing on end, her hair floating in the air, even though there was no wind blowing. "You... Tried to hurt my Ranma!" She cried out, not even realizing what she had said. "DIE!" She screamed, thrusting her hands forward, a powerful concentration of Ethereal energy rocketing through the air.

"No, YOU!" Ryoga countered, mimicking her motions and launching his own attack at her.

Ranma-chan shook her head, her eyes widened as the attacks collided in mid-air. "Oh fu..." Her sentence was unfinished as the result of the collision caused a dark, twisting obelisk of an explosion, causing all three to cry out as they were launched from the area.

(---)

Everyone at the tournament had to stop and stare as a huge explosion caused the ground around them to shake and several of them to hit the ground. Some were taking cover under whatever they could, some fearing a bomb had just gone off. Others were panicking and running from the place in a hurry.

"What the hell?" Akane asked as she stared, wide-eyed at the explosion in the distance. Stuff like that wasn't natural.

Thankfully the tremors subsided a couple of seconds later. Everyone at the tournament was still for several minutes, just waiting for another explosion. When none came, everyone gave a sigh of relief. They started murmuring and wondering what that was all about.

Akane shuddered. Damn, she had felt... _Something_ from that explosion. Whatever it was, it wasn't exactly pleasant.

(---)

Ranma-chan groaned and cracked an eye open. 'Damn, that hurt.' She thought to herself. Felt as though her old man tossed her in front of an oncoming train for toughness training. She heard some noise around her and felt a body next to hers. "Huh?" She said softly, trying to get up, blinking into more full awareness as she found a weight on her body. "Who?" She muttered, blinking as she saw a body laying on hers, resting. "Grave?" She asked, sighing as it seemed the girl was just relaxing.

"You're awake?" The lycanthropoid asked softly, not opening her eyes and just relaxing.

"Yeah."

Grave smiled and sat up. "Come on... That blast sent us across town." She winced, dammed back-lash hurt.

The redhead stared. "No way." Seeing Grave nod, she groaned. "Damn. What the hell did you two do?"

"No idea." Grave muttered. "Come on, let's go to your mom's house."

"Good idea..." Ranma-chan muttered as the two got up. "You know... I have no idea where we are."

Sweat-dropping and giggling, the cheetah-looking girl shook her head. "Same here." It looked like they were in a park, at least they could find someone who could give them directions. "We look like hell." She commented after a few moments, taking notice of their tattered clothes.

To be continued...

* * *

"Wow, that took awhile." 

"Yeah, well, so what?"

"Hey, we're back in the next chapter, Brit."

"I know, Bri."

Sorry, so, so sorry that took so long to get updated.

Well, I'm slightly back into the writing groove.

I threw a few jabs at some pop culture.


	25. 23

Grave's New Life

Chapter 23

Disclaimer: Nope, I own this not. High Lord Fred Perry, Rumiko Takahashi-Sama and Godfather Ben Dunn own their respective characters. I only made up this story...

Note: Well, here we go, took some time off to get some ideas in the head.

* * *

Groaning as she walked into the house, Brianna Diggers moved into the living room and flopped down onto the teal-colored couch, groaning as her little "vacation" to Ireland turned into something that turned out to be completely nuts. Not that that should have been any surprise for her. Nutty and insane adventures were almost the norm for her. To be honest, if something normal happened, she'd probably be very, very frightened. Normal wasn't bad, not by a long shot. It was just that normal was so _ab_normal for her and her family that she doubted things would ever be normal. 

"Hey, you okay?" A voice from the kitchen spoke up, causing Brianna to look up. Peeking in from the kitchen was a young woman with golden hair with dark spots in it, white fur all over her face with two black stripes going over each eye going from the middle of her forehead down to her jawbone.

"Hey, Britanny." Brianna said in a tired voice as she relaxed back into the couch. "Found out that rats and leaprechauns don't go well together." She shook her head, groaning lightly at what happened to her on that little trip. It could've been worse, the Lycanthropoid assumed. She could've been locked up in prison, the gold missing and the rats gone. 'Yeah, that would've totally sucked.' She mused. Being locked up by those guys wouldn't be the most pleasant thing in the world to deal with.

"What the heck?" Britanny asked as she walked into the room. "Why were any rats there?"

"Apparently they were after the Leprechaun's gold machine." Brianna shook her head. Why those three were after that machine, she wasn't sure. She didn't really care. All she knew was that they caused more problems for her and her family than was needed.

Britanny balled her left hand up into a fist. It wasn't as if Wererats had ruined her life. Oh no, they had just collared her, caused her dad's hand to get blown away, and she had later found out that they directly caused the last bloody incident between her clan and the Werewolves. No, Wererats weren't high on her list. In all honesty, only a few people were lower on her list than Wererats. Maybe not all of them were as bad as the ones she had met.

"Hey, you got your wedding ring back." Brianna said, noticing the shining object around her sister's left ring finger. She didn't know what the heck happened to cause her sister to lose her wedding ring, but since her sister had it back, there wasn't much need to wonder about it anymore.

"Yep." She said, smirking as she remembered just how she got her ring back. Though she did feel bad for what happened to her friend during that trip, things turned out okay in the end. Only the fish was dead and no one really cared about fish. "Other than the rats, how was it?"

"Not bad." Brianna shrugged. "I think the old coot of a general needs to lighten up though." She didn't know what his problem was, but he didn't seem to like anyone other than himself, and she wasn't sure that he liked himself that much. Brianna snorted in disgust. "Guy should also stop smoking too. Those cigars can't be legal."

"Cigars?" Britanny asked.

"Yeah. Guy had Cuban-sized for Leprechauns," Brianna said. "Why he doesn't just smoke full-sized ones is beyond me."

Shrugging, the older of the two glanced at the time. "Hmm, Muffin should be home soon."

"Where'd he go?" Brianna asked, wondering. It wasn't as if her brother-in-law had a job yet, though he was trying to get one.

"Job hunting." She replied. "He said he'd be home around this time." She hoped he got a job, not that they needed money at that moment, but it was more for him, since he was looking forward to actually being able to settle down, move to a new house and not actually have to live with their sisters anymore, just like any normal married couple would want.

(---)

Meanwhile, in a dark, undisclosed place...

"So, how bad is it?" A voice asked, this one sounding as if it was never wrong in an argument.

"Whatever do you mean?" The second person said, raising an eyebrow to her companion. Her eyes showed more experience than any single person deserved to have.

"The time change."

"Seems to be different, not sure what to think about it right now."

"Other than those three are in danger?"

"Maybe... He seems to keep that one calm."

"..." The first voice had nothing to say to that.

(---)

"Um, Brianna, Britanny," a voice broke into the sisters' conversation. Turning, they smiled as they saw their purple-haired friend, Genn.

"Hey, Genn." Brianna smiled at her best friend. She felt so lucky to know Genn as a friend. Well, it was better than the girl trying to beat her in a fight then suck her ethereal energy dry. Not that she thought Genn would actually do something like that to her or anyone.

"You two will _not_ believe this." She said, her eyes wide slightly.

The two blinked and followed Genn into the living room, blinking as she was at the T.V., messing around with the DVD. "Genn?" Brianna blinked and tilted her head. Why would her friend ask her to the living room when she could've just told her what was going on instead? "What's up?"

"Yeah, usually you aren't so nervous looking." Britanny added, a slightly worried frown adorning her face as Genn hit the play button on the player.

Genn didn't say anything as the player started up. The two sisters blinked as they saw some video, not the best quality, obviously a home video of some sort. In the front of the video were two Asian youths fighting it out, but that wasn't what caught Britanny and Brianna's attentions. It was the girl with the yellow and black hair, white face and tail that caught their attention. The fact that she had an eye stripe over her right eye and not one on the left side was also interesting to the both of them.

Brianna's eyes widened as she watched her evil half yell something, only to leave a moment later.

"Genn, how the heck did you get this?" Britanny was astounded, another Werecheetah? Okay, so maybe this one wasn't the same as her, but hey, that was fine. Maybe she wasn't the last Werecheetah like everyone thought she was? After all, Raphiel had shown up and gave people hope that there may have been other Werecheetahs out there, but he turned out to be a golem, and that situation had turned up bupkis.

"Japanese news cast. It was for some program or other about "increasing violence in schools"." Or was that, weirdness grows to a new level? Genn wasn't that sure, the transmission wasn't too terribly good and the audio broke up in some key places.

Britanny was half-way out of the room by that time. "Where are you going?" Brianna asked as she watched Britanny leave.

"To get ready for a trip to Japan." Was the reply.

"Japan?" Brianna asked, agasp at Britanny taking such an interest. "Why do YOU want to go to Japan?"

Stopping at the doorway between the living room and the kitchen, Britanny looked over her shoulder. "Because it's another werecheetah, Brianna... A real werecheetah." At least, she thought it was. After all, she didn't think Tanya had the time or reason to make another like Raphiel.

"Urk! Uh, Brit..." Brianna started to say hesitantly. Great, how was she to get her sister to stay out of this? Lord knows if Grave saw her, she might start trying to finish her mission!

"Yes, Bri?" Britanny asked, wrapping her arms underneath her breasts.

"Well..." Raising a hand to the back of her neck, Brianna scratched a little. What the heck to-OH! "I could just check on it for you! I mean, don't you want to spend time with Stryyp? He'll need all the moral support he can while looking for a job."

Needless to say, Britanny didn't look all that convinced.

"I mean, shouldn't you stay here with Stryyp? Wouldn't he get worried if you were gone?"

"Well..." Britanny considered that, tail waving behind her a bit. "Well, I could just wait for him to get home and show him this." The werecheetah said. "Heck, I think we should show everyone."

"ACK!"

Seeing her sister and the rakshasa blanch, Britanny has to ask, "What?"

"Nothing, nothing!" They said at the same time.

Again, Britanny wasn't convinced; a small sweat-drop rolling down the side of her head. "Well, as I was saying, we should show everyone. I'm sure dad could teleport us to Japan. With all of us, it won't take long to find that girl."

Brianna sweated nervously. Great, just what they needed. Even if their dad could subdue the girl, which she didn't doubt, Grave would probably go crazy seeing all of them in one place at the same time. The amount of destruction wouldn't be pretty.

"Don't you think that's a bit much?" Genn asked, trying to keep this situation from exploding any worse than it already was.

Blinking her eyes, Britanny asked, "A little bit much?"

"Well, I mean, why bring your dad in on this?" Genn asked. "Wouldn't it be better to be more discreet?"

"Why be discreet?" Britanny asked. "If there's another werecheetah, we need to find her and fast! And besides, it's not like anyone is going to hurt her, or gang up on her. We'll look for her and politely ask her questions or at least try to get to know her first."

At least, that was how Britanny saw to go about it.

"Did you tell her?" Genn whispered to Brianna. She sweat dropped as Brianna shook her head. "Greeeeaaat..." She drawled out. Just what they needed. Britanny didn't really understand the situation.

"Tell me what?" Britanny asked, suddenly between the two. "Are you two hiding something?"

"Ack!" Brianna squawked as her sister got in-between them. "Wha.. What gives you that impression?"

"Everything you're doing..." Britanny said as she stood up at full height, arms crossed under her breasts and looking rather menacing as she tapped her foot, tail swaying behind her irritably. "Well?"

"Thatwerecheetahsevilandwantstokillyouginaandmeandifeveryoneshowsuptheresgoingtobeproblems." Brianna blabbered out at once.

"Woah, woah, WOAH! Slow down, Bri!" Britanny said as she raised her hands and tried to make placating motions. "Stop and gather yourself. I may be werecheetah but speed HEARING is not a specialty."

Brianna whimpered. Dammit, how was she going to explain this one? "Fine..." She sighed. "That werecheetah's evil and wants to kill you, me and Gina and if everyone shows up there's going to be problems."

Britanny blinked her eyes once...

Twice...

Thrice...

"...The hell?" Britanny asked, right ear twitching. "Brianna, what the hell makes you say THAT?" She demanded, that sounded completely unreasonable for anyone. She completely forgot about how her friends Jetta and Thabian, both Werewolves, treated her the first time they met her.

"Um..." Brianna hemmed and gnawed at her bottom lip.

"Well?" Britanny pressured.

"...I can't say..." Brianna answered. Genn was quiet throughout all this, it was something Brianna had to tell on her own.

"Well then, looks like we'll need to do this the hard way then..." Britanny said as she cracked her knuckles...

"The hard way? What hard-" Brianna's eyes went wide. "Oh no! you don't mean-"

"TICKLE ATTACK!" Britanny yelled and tackled her sister, going straight for the armpits. It was the same spot Gina was ticklish and she KNEW it carried over to Brianna.

"WAGH! BWAHAHAHAHA! STTOOOOPP!" Brianna cried out as she laughed and giggled, thrashing around on the carpet as her sister tickled her over and over.

"C'mon, Bri! Spill the beans!" Britanny said, her tail having wrapped around Brianna's wrists above her head so her armpits were completely defenseless to her speedy fingers.

"WAHAHAHAHAHAHA! OKAY! OKAY! JUST STOOOP!" She cried out in laughter, tears coming down her eyes.

"Okay, then what is it?" She asked, smirking as Brianna caught her breath. It was easy to be victorious over her sister when she held her like this. And then for measure she gave another tickle. "C'mon, Bri... You KNOW you wanna tell me..." Britanny said as she straddled her younger sister so she couldn't get away after she stopped tickling.

Panting slightly, Brianna gulped and looked at Genn for any help the Raksasha could give her. Seeing Genn shake her head, she mentally frowned. 'Thanks a lot, Genn.' She thought to herself. "Well... Can't you just trust me that she's evil?"

"...She looked like she was shouting a little in there, but I wouldn't call her evil," Britanny answered as she looked down at Brianna. "Why do you say she's evil?"

"Because she wants to kill you and Gina?" Brianna ventured.

Britanny blinked her eyes. "Why would she want to do that if I've never met her?" Britanny's hand went to the zipper of Brianna's one-piece, letting the Lycanthropoid's breasts spill out of her suit, thankfully, she was wearing a bra, bringing the fly open down to her belly-button. "Tell me, or I'm going to start tickling your armpits directly," The werecheetah threatened as her hands move past the sides of Brianna's black silk bra-cladden breasts.

Brianna's eyes widened at that. "You wouldn't dare..." This would normally be slightly embarrassing, thankfully, they were all girls and Brianna wasn't bothered by normal modesty standards.

Smirking, Britanny stuck her index fingers directly against Bri's armpits. "Commencing tickle in ten... Nine... Eight... Sev-"

Brianna gasped. "Okay, okay! I'll talk!" She protested.

Britanny nodded her head, but kept her hands where they were. "Okay. So please, tell me straight what you know, and no beating around the bush..."

Taking a deep breath, the Lycanthropoid nodded. "She... She's me..." She said, hoping against all hope that Britanny wouldn't tickle her again.

And Britanny didn't. The seriousness with which she had answered was more than enough to convince the werecheetah she had meant that. "She's... You? How?"

"Well..." Brianna said slowly. She then explained how things went down on Jade that caused her and Grave Digger to seperate and fight, nearly destroying Seer's Hamlet in the process.

"And she disappeared for a long while there..."

Britanny nodded her head slowly to that. "There's only one thing to do..."

"That is?" Brianna asked slowly.

"You're right in that we all can't just go. I'll spook her and cause more problems than help..." Britanny admitted. "We WILL be telling Muffin though. He might be the one person that could help us talk to her without Grave freaking out... So it'll be you, me, Genn, and Muffin searching. Four of us. No more, no less, and hopefully..." Britanny sighed. "We can help her realize she's not an enemy... But our sister."

"Okay... Brit?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you get off of me? You're heavy."

Britanny chuckled. "Sure, I'll-"

"I'm home!" Stryyp said as he walked into the living room. "Oh, what a day, it's..." Stryyp blinked his eyes and saw the position his wife and sister-in-law were in. "BRITANNY?"

Blinking her eyes, Britanny looked back and forth between her husband and what she was doing. "IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK!"

Genn giggled. This was almost too funny.

Stryyp's eye twitched a little. "I... I hope it's not..."

Brianna chuckled lightly. "She was just tickling me to death... And trying to crush me under her big butt."

"Hey!" Britanny shouted, tail going straight up. "My butt is not big!"

"I sure thought baby got back..." Genn muttered under her breath.

"WHAT WAS THAT?" Britanny shouted, hair standing on end.

"Nothing!" Genn was quick to answer.

"Uh, ladies?" Stryyp spoke up nervously. "Would someone tell me what's going on here?"

Getting off of her sister, Britanny gave a bit of a glare to Genn before turning to her husband. "Sorry, Muffin, but, would you mind going with me, Genn and Brianna to Japan for a few days?" Behind her, Brianna had stood up and was zipping up her body-suit.

"Japan?" The Kryn asked with a raised eyebrow. It wasn't the first time that he had travelled around the world in some sort of expedition with his family. "Sure. What's the occasion though?" He half-expected it was some sort of present for Gina. She was big on collecting various comics and animation. He wouldn't have known if he hadn't stumbled across Gina's secret stash of various American and Japanese comics.

"Well, would you believe that we discovered something and need to check it out right away!" Britanny quickly explained. Now, how were they supposed to get to Japan? She didn't know if Ace was around at the moment. At least he could keep a secret relatively safe.

"I could..." He said slowly, raising an eyebrow. "But you still haven't told me what it was about."

A few minutes later of long, complex and weird explanations later...

"So, you're saying that there's a Werecheetah in Japan that's actually you, Brianna?" Stryyp raised an eyebrow and looked at the Lycanthropoid in question. Seeing her nod, he sighed and closed his eyes, thinking about what he had heard.

Britanny watched him for several minutes as he thought about what he had heard. "Muffin?" She asked, slightly worried. She just hoped that he wouldn't go and tell Gina or her parents about this. It may have been a good idea, but they didn't need Brianna's other half to go crazy if they all showed up at the same time. What was she thinking? That was the absolute last thing that they needed to happen. Even if her dad could, and she knew it was possible, subdue Grave Digger, if any of that Werecheetah's attacks that she most likely would have used hit anyone, well... Her brain didn't want to go into that.

Sighing, the large Tiger-looking Kryn shook his head and looked at his wife. "To be honest, I feel as if it would be better if we told Gina or Dr. Diggers about this." He held up his hand when it looked like they were about to protest. "It's what I would normally say. However, I agree with your sentiment. The less that show up the better." Seeing everyone relax, he smiled. "However, if you see this girl,"

"Grave Digger." Brianna interrupted.

"Yes, Grave Digger, try not to upset her and cause a scene." He sighed, shaking his head. "Just try to not spook her if she sees you."

"I think she'll be afraid of anyone she sees." Genn spoke up, causing the other three to look at her. "The last memories she has of us aren't pleasant. I caused her to blow up and attack Seer's Hamlet, Brianna was taunting her and fighting and we all know that she doesn't like Britanny." She looked at Stryyp seriously. "To be honest. If you're able to talk to her first, she may be a bit more responsive than to anyone else." Genn had an ulterior motive, that was sure. She figured that the Werecheetah in question would still harbor some feelings for the Kryn in the room. At least, that's what she hoped. Britanny would probably hate her for doing this, but it was better than having an unstable Werecheetah that wanted to kill them all off.

"I'll call to see if Ace is around." Brianna said as she left the room. Gods, she hoped he was. Last thing they needed was to ask their dad about a scroll to Japan.

The others nodded and left to get ready for a trip to Japan. Their minds were all in different directions as they went to get packed for their trip to Japan.

* * *

Preview of the next chapter: 

"Hey! That was fun!"

"For you maybe..."

"Oh, quiet, Bri, you know it wasn't that bad."

"Well, what happens next?"

"We get Ace and manage to drag him away from Penny for a little bit and get to Japan!"


	26. 24

Grave's New Life

Chapter 24

Disclaimer: I wish I could draw. Then maybe I could claim to own the series involved. But, no, I can't draw that well. Godfather Ben Dunn, Rumiko Takahashi-sama and High Lord Fred Perry own the respective characters held within.

* * *

Normally upset passengers didn't bother pilots. After all, dealing with the stress of flying, co-pilots, co-workers and the hell that is training school, a seasoned pilot could honestly say that they didn't get bothered by very much. Usually nothing short of armed conflict bothered a pilot. Kevin Koss, better known as Ace, was one person who could keep his cool in nearly any situation. Heck, even being boarded by his rivals when they decided to show up only really bothered him because he was usually delivering something important. 

But none of that was bothering him. Heck, the group he was catering to wasn't anyone special, two of the four he knew for years now, and the other two were related to his first two, so that wasn't a problem. Heck, he wasn't bothered by the fact that he had been asked to travel when he had promised his girl some alone time. She was a bit upset, but understood. It was easy for her to understand when she had a few days worth of unfinished paperwork to deal with. Making a mental note, he promised himself to take her to the Bahamas or something for a few days.

The fact that a seven-foot tall, magical cat girl with more speed and strength than most professional fighters was agitated was one thing. The fact that he knew exactly what she was like, well, maybe not exactly, but the horror stories that her sister had told him was bad enough. Plus from the times he had seen her in action added to the nervousness he was feeling at that moment. Seeing an angry, twitching cat pace back and forth from the cockpit to the cargo area and back wasn't making this Trans-Pacific flight any easier. "Yo, Brit, girl, please calm down." He said, finally losing his patience with the woman. True, he respected and cared about her, but sometimes she was just too much for him to deal with.

He relaxed as she sat down in the co-pilot seat. True, she was still anxious and nervous, but at least she was trying to calm down now. "Look, what's causing you so much worry, yo?" The dark-skinned man asked the Werecheetah, as he looked her over. While her choice of clothes was, as per usual for her, quite nice and was able to show off her body without being too indecent about it, her face and hair, on the other hand, looked haphazard, some of her hair sticking out at odd places, rings under her eye-lids, thankfully they weren't thick, a few hours of sleep would fix that, or a shower, whichever she decided to do first.

Sighing as she leaned back in her chair, she looked at her friend, who was dressed in a light brown flight suit, and smiled lightly. The guy was always nice enough to make sure that his passengers were comfortable at the very least and would listen to problems if they weren't too much of a hassle. That only usually happened if he got into a dog fight. Which, now that she thought about it, happened a lot. "Sorry, Ace, I was just thinking about what I found out." Seeing him look at her, she continued, "I mean, for years, I thought I was the only Werecheetah," she said, not really needing to mention that she was the last pure-born Werecheetah that was still alive. "Well..." She sighed and explained to him what she saw on the news, though she didn't mention what Brianna had told her. (1)

He was silent with what he was told. He grimaced slightly. It was like finding out that he had a twin brother and both had been separated at birth. Frowning, he mentally made a note to not watch those types of movies with his girl again. "Brit, girl, why are you so nervous? Maybe this Werecheetah'll be happy to know that there's others like her." Ace could figure that she was nervous. Travelling thousands of miles from home just to try and find one person that may or may not still be there could make anyone nervous.

Britanny was almost, _almost_ tempted to tell her friend about what Brianna had mentioned. "It's... Complicated." She said at length. Even if she wanted to tell Ace what Brianna had told her, she thought about her past and how she didn't even tell her older sister for years about what she had heard about her clan. Something like that just wasn't her place to tell.

When people usually said stuff like that, it meant that they either wanted to tell, but couldn't. Or they just didn't want to explain further. Either way, the pilot nodded and continued the flight.

(---)

Not knowing that people were coming for her, the girl in question was yawning as she walked downstairs of Nodoka's house. She had her eyes closed as she walked around in an over-sized light blue and purple T-shirt, one that went from her neck down to her knees. Rubbing the sleep out of her eyes, the Lycanthropoid walked by the back door and stopped to look outside. She smiled as she watched Ranma, who wasn't wearing a shirt, she noted with a light blush, was back-flipping, kicking, punching and going through several fighting motions not unlike a grasshopper on a cappuccino caffeine rush.

In other words, he was taking a normal exercise, for him anyway, and transforming it into something that was breathless, mostly due the speed he was using. True, it wasn't as fast as she, no wait, that wasn't her was it? Stupid conflicting memories just had to ruin her morning, didn't they?

Sighing, Grave shook her head, causing her hair, which was slightly tangled, to shift around and cover her eyes slightly. She dismissed the memories, not wanting her morning to get any worse than it was already. As she watched him, a memory of him telling her that he had to be the best no matter what popped into her head.

Flashback... (Insert waves, oooh, pretty colors)

_"So, why do you work so hard?" She asked him out of the blue one day while travelling on Jade._

_Blinking, he thought about it for a couple of minutes, Grave was going to repeat her question, when he suddenly spoke up. "I guess," He started, his eyes getting a distant look to them, "I guess I've been told my whole life to be the best out there and for years, all I really wanted to do was impress my old man. And when he said that mom would be proud to have the best martial artist as a son..." He trailed off, shrugging his shoulders and not saying anything more on it._

_The Lycanthropoid thought about it, and nodded. It sounded plausible to her. And the more she thought about it, the more it made sense. Almost all kids wanted to impress their parents in one way or another. And if that child put their whole life into making their parent proud of them, well, then their life goal would eventually turn into what their parent wanted it to be. Not that she disagreed with this one. If it wasn't for that ambition he had, she'd probably be captured, dead or sealed away somewhere._

End flashback... (Oooh! Shiny!)

Watching him backflip out of the way from an imagined attack, she smiled and stepped outside to sit on the back porch. Sitting down on one of the chairs that was there, she leaned back and watched as Ranma kicked upwards, before dropping to the floor to do a perfect sweep around him. The fact that she got a really good look at his rear had nothing to do with it. Really, it wasn't like she was watching every flex tightening of his backside. It was just coincidence that her eyes were glued in on his backside. Nothing serious.

It wasn't her fault that she practically screamed as she jumped from her chair and gripped the roof of the porch. Honestly, who the hell would go around sneaking around this early in the morning? Looking down, she reddened, though not out of anger, as she saw Ranma's mother looking at her inquisitively. "Neko-tama-chan, are you okay?" She asked, her voice was filled with nervous worry. Most people didn't go from sitting down to clinging to the ceiling in a flash. (2)

Taking a deep breath to catch her nerves, she nodded and dropped to the floor in a crouch, revealing that she was wearing short shorts under that shirt of hers. While the landing wasn't as graceful as Ranma's was, she thought she did a pretty good job not landing on her rear. "Yeah, auntie, I'm okay." She smiled at the older woman who just smiled in return.

"Oh goodie." She exclaimed, smiling and turning back into the house. "Breakfast will be ready in a few minutes." It amazed Grave how she could just shrug off some of the weirder things that she had seen. Most of that weird stuff was her fault, now that she thought about it.

It wasn't her fault that she reacted the way she did in the next five seconds. Seriously, why did people feel that they had to exercise their stealth capabilities all of a sudden? Her eyes practically jumped out of their sockets as she proved, yet again, that she had the reflexes of a cat, or at least similar to it, as she jumped up and grabbed the roof the porch again. Her right eye twitched as she looked down at a slightly confused Ranma, who had apparently crept up on her and decided it would be just hilarious to tap her on the shoulder and scare her back to the roof of the porch again. Though, she was slightly disappointed to see that he had put on a white tank-top, even if it did nothing to really hide his body.

"Uh, sorry." He said, chuckling nervously as he rubbed the back of his head. "You were just standing there looking out into space for awhile."

She was out of it long enough that someone had to comment on it? Shaking her head, she dropped to the ground again. "What's up with everyone sneaking around?" She asked, half-pouting, half-groaning. Honestly, she didn't know why people had to make themselves completely silent when they walked around. She didn't notice it too much with most people, but it was hard to tell when anyone was coming or going in the house she was staying in. Hell, Nodoka walked around light footed. No one else that she knew in her memories, at least for most of them, seemed to sneak around as much as the people in this house did.

"Habit." Was Ranma's answer to her question. Well, that and the fact that he was forced to steal when he was really young. That was pretty hard, to put it mildly, since he made more noise than a jackhammer when he was trying to sneak around. The beatings he got form various people taught him just how important it was to sneak around.

Tilting her head, she raised an eyebrow and shrugged. Who was she to complain about different and sometimes weird habits? She had a few of them herself. It wasn't like she really wanted to, but Ranma had said that she was a human bat-zapper, which caused her to groan every time he said it. Honestly, it wasn't her fault that she hated bats with a passion. So what if she blasted bats with aura beams every time she saw one. It was their fault for even existing after all. "Let's get some breakfast." She said, smiling and walking into the house.

Breakfast sounded good, though, he had to wonder just why his stomach decided to voice its agreement loudly. It wasn't like he was starving for days on end. At least, compared to what he had done on that training trip. That had been a nightmare and a half sometimes and he had long decided that if he ever had kids, he wasn't going to put them through that hell. A lesser version would work just fine, no one needed to go through some of that crap that he did. Not that he complained about the results, it was just the fact that sometimes spending more than five days laid up due to injuries really bothered him. It could've been worse though, considering his old man often pushed for the final result and damn the consequences.

(---)

Their search had been mostly fruitless, having to deal with scum that had nothing better to do than just bully those weaker than themselves and leer at women, the people of this "underground" criminal organization gave Shampoo more problems than she liked to admit. Not that any of these thugs gave her any problems, her walk was good enough, not to mention her confidence in her walk, to make most of the people who would think about touching her that way steer clear.

Having a two-foot troll with a six-foot staff walking right by her didn't hurt either. "Xian Pu," said troll said, before continuing without waiting on a reply, "I have what we've wanted for awhile now. Let's go." Her gravelly voice cut into the background noise as she and her granddaughter jumped out of the alley and onto the skyline, both of them moving fast enough that most people would only be able to see blurs at best. Still, getting away from this more down-trodden part of the city was good in the younger Amazon's opinion.

The fact that three people were either dead or in need of emergency medical treatment because they had decided to attempt some liberties with her didn't bother her in the slightest. Being an Amazon did have its perks. Being able to crack people's skulls was just one of them. (3)

Frowning as she made her way towards the inner portions of the city, the elder of the two was busy digesting the information that she had managed to "coax" out of such "willing" participants. They weren't dead, killing scum like that wasn't really worth her time, and she was in a hurry. The information wasn't too useful, but she finally did have a name to search for now. "Genma Saotome." She muttered, wondering just why a bunch of underground criminals would know about the slightly overweight martial artist, but she just shoved it away, figuring that it probably wasn't that important overall. (4)

(---)

Shivering as though someone poured ice water down his back, the aforementioned martial artist stared at the field of battle. So many had fallen to the enemy already, thankfully, he had been able to return the favor without losing too much ground. Spotting avulnerablepoint to his enemy's formation, he was quick to attack the point, only to be brutally blown back a moment later. "Well played, Tendo, well played." He complimented as his friend placed down the next piece on the board. Now, how could he get out of this?

Soun Tendo was a man that had survived a lot in his life, his wife's death, training under the most sadistic and perverted man ever, three teenaged, well, one was an adult now, girls, the loss of his students when his emotions got in the way of training, and now the current setback of his and Saotome's plans to marry their children together. Still, he and Saotome had been making plans to get his best friend's son away from Nodoka and show up at his place ever since that tournament. He didn't agree with outright kidnapping, but sometimes sacrifices needed to be made. "But, are you sure that you can get to your son? Remember last time you were there?" He asked, remembering just how bad Genma looked after making his way back to the Dojo.

"Yes, but I'm sure that I shouldn't see her again, even so, you'll be there to back me up." And if he knew his wife right, he could push honor onto the matter and that would be the end of all problems. Well, except for his empty wallet. He still couldn't believe that the middle child of Soun's girls would charge so much to find out where his son was. How was he to know that Ranma had managed to stumble across Nodoka when he wasn't looking?

Frowning, Soun nodded and sighed internally. Being backup for Genma usually meant taking the brunt of an explosion, or at the very least making sure that he got out of a sticky situation without too many problems. At least it wasn't as bad as it had been with the master, that was for sure.

Grinning as he put down his next piece on the board, Genma was only a couple moves away from victory, now if only he could figure out what his friend was looking at in surprise. Turning his head, Genma frowned, not seeing anything in the yard, nor in the air when he looked up. Maybe what his best friend had seen was gone and wasn't any problem now. Turning back to the board, his eyes widened. Wasn't he ahead just a moment ago?

(---)

"Thanks, mom!" Ranma yelled out as he walked outside and jumped up onto the fence as he went down the street, Grave Digger following him on the sidewalk, both wanting to enjoy the day and not have to worry about anything. Okay, so Ranma was skipping school, but in all honesty, he didn't see much use for it, other than to bore the hell out of him. Though, he supposed that that American teacher was kinda cool. He still got a laugh out of that motto of his about steam saving the world.

"Honestly," Ranma mumbled to himself. "How the hell is steam going to save the world?" It wasn't like it could be used to cure diseases, could it? He had to think about it for a few moments, trying to figure out how someone could use steam to fix diseases. Maybe it just sped up the healing that the body went through? That was something to ask. Though, he could admit that one machine that the guy had shown him on the first day was awesome, it just wasn't practical. Over-relying on something made you a bit too vulnerable when you didn't have it anymore.

"Maybe as a cheap source of energy?" Grave offered as she kept in pace with Ranma, her tail swaying cutely back and forth behind her. If she was honest with herself, the only real reason she followed her friend around was because of a shift in the air. Something just _felt_ different and she couldn't place it.

He looked down and shrugged. That could be it, but honestly, he doubted that anything came that cheap. "Say, didn't trains used to run on steam or something?"

"Yes, actually," Grave said, some memories of Brianna, and Gina, whom Grave didn't want to admit was her sister at all, were still in her mind. "Using coal burning, they were able to use a water-pressure and steam system to span back and forth across America on rails. It was mostly used because coal burned longer than wood did." She didn't mention that most of the world's electricity came from coal as opposed to other forms of power.

It still didn't make sense to Ranma why someone would use steam to power everything, but he just shrugged it off mentally. "So, how do you think he powers all those machines of his?"

"Not sure, coal wouldn't be cheap to carry around in large amounts," Grave told him. "Back when trains were first developed, coal was dirt cheap." She considered things. "Also, he might have found alternative ways to try and make steam. Maybe by using solar energy." (5)

Of course, if the professor heard that, he would have called her a heretic for depending on sun-beams. Fortunately, he was nowhere around to hear her, so she was safe.

"Maybe..." Was Ranma's reply as they made their way to the park. There was supposed to be some fun stuff going on today, though personally, Ranma just wanted to work out and knew that the park was fairly large. It was the closest thing he had seen to a training area in this area. If he wasn't satisfied, he'd take his mother's advice and check out that northern area like she suggested. Though, how an area of a large city like Tokyo actually had areas that were perfect for training, he wasn't sure, but if there was, he certainly wouldn't complain.

Grave smiled as she realized where they were heading. "Can we stop for ice cream?" She asked, loving the taste of the lovely frozen creamy delicacy. It wasn't her fault! The Japanese apparently knew how to make really good ice cream. She had to be careful though, she kept getting brain freezes.

Jumping off the fence as they came to the park, he shrugged as he thought about it. "Sure." Why not? He liked the stuff as much as anyone, even if he never did get much of it while on the road with his old man.

"Thank you!" Grave said excitedly, before tightly hugging onto Ranma, causing more than a few people to look at the pair and smile ruefully. Some frowned lightly at the open display of affection, while others were giving the pigtailed martial artist a slight grin and a thumbs-up.

Ranma stiffened and his eyes widened as she hugged him. "Eh heh heh..." He chuckled nervously before hugging her back. He wasn't afraid to show his affections, per say, it was just that the looks he was getting from everyone around them made him slightly nervous.

Grave however, ignored the staring and continued to hug onto Ranma. She liked hugging him, he had saved her life a couple of times, why shouldn't she hug him? Besides, the promise of ice cream just gave her more incentive to give him a hug.

Ranma just shook his head and continued to hold her. He just couldn't believe how nice it felt to hold her close to him. He wished he had known about how good hugging felt earlier, though, he couldn't see himself turning into a hugging fiend and trying to hug everyone around him.

"So..." Grave said as she held onto Ranma. "They do sell ice cream at the park, right?" She asked, smiling up at him cutely, mentally grinning as he was staggered slightly, not that she'd manipulate him into doing something dangerous, but a treat like this wasn't something she could just pass up. It didn't hurt that he looked so cute when he was looking like that.

"Why wouldn't they?" He asked, dumbfounded. Hell, half the time he and his old man would run into ice-cream vendors without even half-trying. Not that he ever bought any ice cream from them. It was either pass along or steal from them.

Looking down, the little lycanthropoid mumbled, "Would be my luck if we didn't find any today..."

Seeing as she really wanted ice cream, Ranma frowned, before picking her up and jumping up into the trees and ran, or rather jumped along the branches, into the park. "Okay then..." Hey, if his friend wanted ice cream, he'd get her ice cream. Sides, he wanted some himself.

Grave squealed with delight. She loved when Ranma did this with her! Even if it wasn't that often. Wrapping her arms around Ranma's neck, she lightly purred as he carried her across the park. She wondered why he was shivering slightly, but she shrugged it off and enjoyed the ride. Damn if it wasn't pleasant.

Looking around, Ranma nodded as he saw an a small cart and a few people eating ice cream as they walked away from it. "There we go..." He said as he touched down right next to it with nary a sound or kicked-up dust.

Those gathered around the ice cream cart were surprised when a guy with girl in his arms just landed right next to the vendor. People appearing out of nowhere wasn't something that happened too often, unless it was a Ninja, but they were excentricly weird was it was already and no one thought that those two were Ninja. The guy looked normal enough, but the girl _might've_ been a Ninja, she was weird in appearance after-all.

"Uh... Hello?" The ice cream man offered. He hoped that these two wouldn't be like the people his relatives had to deal with. Why, one of them had a blonde girl that usually ate all the ice cream that was in stock, and then there were tales of monsters running around in that area, and his other cousin that lived up north complained about skimpy-dressed aliens that caused way too much destruction and property damage for their own good. His sister had told him tales of a pink-haired girl that usually got into fights with helicopters and large machines. Was he destined to get some crazies like those three? Kami-sama, he hoped not. (6)

Putting Grave down, he nodded to the man as they made their orders for ice-cream and waited for their orders. Why were people giving them odd looks? He didn't fly, teleport, go invisible or some other thing that wasn't possible outside of anime, so why were people looking at him like that?

The ice cream man had to go slowly. He made two four-scoop large sugar waffle cones. "Here you go." He said slowly, offering it to them and balancing it carefully. If he went fast, he might spill the ice cream and then he'd have upset customers, and the last thing he wanted were upset customers that may or may not have super-human abilities or powers.

"YAY!" Grave mewled happily, taking hers and already licking rapidly. She LOVED ice cream! Smiling and purring, she walked away after they paid for the icy goodness, licking the delicacy eagerly.

Ranma chuckled slightly and started to lick his own cone as they walked away from the vendor. He had to admit, Grave licking the ice cream was really cute for some reason.

(---)

"Well, here we are." Ace said as he looked at his passengers. He had just landed the plane a couple of minutes ago and nodded to them. "Home of the rising sun, weird things galore and a cool culture." He stood up, stretched and walked into the back of his plane. He'd need to refill the thing before he could even think about taking off, but first he was going to see a friend of his that was supposed to live in Japan now. He wondered if her flight school had taken off yet or not. (7)

Ignoring the pun he made, he looked at his friends as they talked among themselves about where to start looking first. "Hey," he started, causing them to look at him, "head towards the Nerima district."

Blinking, the Werecheetah wondered just why he'd give advice like that. "It's simple," was the reply from their pilot, "Nerima's close to some pretty weird stuff, and some of my friends that come over here a lot tell me that there's a lot of fighters in that area." He shrugged at their looks. "If what I hear is true, then that's the only place a Werecheetah could've gone to hide and not gotten lynched at the first moment."

Britanny nodded and smiled at that advice, sounded good to her. "Thanks."

Behind her, Brianna took a deep breath. This was it, the time to find out everything.

* * *

Preview of Next Chapter: 

"So we're walking along, singing a song!"

"Gina, you can't sing."

"Put a sock in it, Bri."

"Ladies, calm down. We didn't come here to shop..."

"What? Shopping!"

"No! We still haven't paid off the last credit card bill!"

"Ah, pooh!"

* * *

Interestingly enough, I posted this chapter on the same day as my first chapter, three years later. Wow... It's been three years already? I know, I know. I probably should've finished it by now, but I only write as it flows out of me. And, trust me, I'd rather write than go to work some days. 

(1) Britanny's a bit hyper and can talk a lot, but she still has the social graces to not tell someone something that's sensitive to someone else.

(2) To be fair, Nodoka didn't see Genma doing that during the training trip. Not that she'd believe it, even if she saw it.

(3) No, the Amazons aren't evil.

(4) It's not, but when someone goes ten years without being caught for various petty theft, especially against other martial artists, word is bound to spread. Bars are a great place to get information from after all.

(5) I'm BSing most of this. I couldn't find anything definite other than a few things.

(6) Just references to several other animes. None of which will appear in this fic.

(7) I'm sure that some of you know who I'm talking about. No, I'm not putting in more characters. There's enough as it is.


	27. 25

Grave's New Life

Chapter 25

Disclaimer: No, I don't own Ranma, Ninja High School or Gold Digger. Now, will you lawyers leave me alone?! Shee!

Note: As of right now, I'm thinking of just ending this story. I mean real life is... hears a cough behind him Hmm? Turns around and sees a glowing Ranma and Grave Digger Uhhh... AHHH!! Not the face! Sounds of gratuitous violence

Grave Digger: Sorry about that folks. The baka author isn't going to end the story just yet. At least not without an ending to it.

Yeah, yeah... Limps back to the computer, bruised and bloody. I wasn't really going to end the story... So, here you go. A late Christmas present to you all.

* * *

She hated speaking Japanese. Not that she wasn't fluent in it; it was just that she sometimes messed up on the undertones and accents. She was glad that she had a genius intellect though; otherwise she might be like her larger, furrier sister, who had a tendency to speak like a bimbo when speaking this language. 

Though, sometimes, Brianna wondered if Britanny was a bimbo, not that she'd say that to Britanny's face, or even within forty miles of her, just to be safe. Not that her sister was a violent maniac, she just had one hell of a temper on her. And memories of when she lost it were just a bit too much to bear. Though, to be fair, her other sister had one on her as well, just that she kept it under control better. Considering that Gina had an insane IQ and could be very vicious in getting back at people, anyone that really knew her tended to not try to get her to that point. Unless they had a serious back up plan, or were insanely tough. Either way, most of the people that dealt with Gina didn't get her to that point. Mostly because she had a good handle on her temper, which was something that most everyone was grateful for.

The tall blonde was just thankful that Gina wasn't there looking for her alter ego. Genn was, thankfully, able to help them understand Japanese due to her ability to translate whatever language was being spoken into the listener's native language. Otherwise, she was sure she'd probably commit some sort of offense to someone. Not that she was worried about having any problems to deal with, but dealing with an international incident wasn't something she really wanted to have to have her dad, mom or the government deal with. The paperwork was horrendous. Why, Brit's friend Asrial bitched about it all the time, what with problems in America, Japan, and... What was it again? Oh, right! Cylutia. Probably someplace in Europe.

"Any luck yet?" She asked as her brother-in-law and sister caught up to them, having split up to ask several people if they knew anything. Not that they went far, that would've most likely been suicide. There were lots of reports of crazy people in this part of the world; heck, even Ace had said something that this place was a hot spot for weird activity.

"None yet." The large tiger man said, shaking his head at their abysmal luck in finding information so far. Did Brianna's alter ego manage to completely slip under the radar? He sure hoped not. But someone had to have seen something, either they weren't looking in the right places, or they just weren't asking the right questions.

Questions about, "Have you seen anything weird lately?" were responded with comments of, 'I was able to have a calm breakfast' or 'I had a quiet day at school', or the popular, 'I wasn't drained of my energy and held hostage by a monster'. It was... Unnerving, to say the least. Even people in Atlanta knew what was normal and what was weird by most standards, though it seemed like no one in this area had any idea of what weird really was.

Britanny frowned lightly; she was surprised that most people didn't think her cat-like appearance was too weird. Heck, most of them were muttering something about hoping that she and her husband wouldn't absorb their life or something like that.

Not that she'd ever do something like that. For one, she couldn't and for two, she wasn't like one of the horrible monsters in the movies that were always showing on the old classic monster movie channel back home. Even if she were, she'd probably be eating them instead of absorbing them.

"Same here." Brianna muttered and sighed, dammit; she was getting upset and agitated at all these dead ends. Hadn't anyone in this whole city, albeit it was rather large, seen the news on a short, furry, cat girl? Well, okay, so maybe her alter ego wasn't short in this part of the world, nor for most of the world, now that she thought about it a bit more, but she sure was shorter than Brianna was. Sweat-dropping as she realized that most of the world hadn't seen a Werecheetah before, the tall blonde shook her head and sighed, that was going to make finding Grave Digger a lot harder than she originally thought, that was for sure.

Maybe she should try a TV advertise...no, no. Then Gina and her parents would know and she'd be in big trouble. Stupid Channel-Surfing devices that were keyed into words like 'Werecheetah', made it so hard to find real, actual Werecheetahs.

Lowering her head, the youngest of the Diggers sisters groaned. "Damn, this is gunna take longer than I thought..." Usually when things came up like this, it took awhile, but not so long that it seemed like they'd be stuck in a foreign country for over a month.

Hmm... perhaps she should take a break? HEY! Across the street was an ice-cream parlor! Well, okay, it wasn't really a parlor, more like a Dairy Queen on wheels. That was okay, she could still get something to eat and relax.

"Where are you going?" Britanny asked, before spotting the cart herself. "Oh." She muttered, thinking that maybe she should get some ice cream herself. Seeing as it wasn't a bad idea, she shrugged and followed her younger sister to get a treat and hopefully relax.

The cashier, a thin, middle-aged man with light gray hair, looked at the two women as they walked up to him, that wasn't too surprising, after all, he had people of all ages and even genders approach him throughout the day, even if the males would be caught dead in a pink tutu than eating ice-cream. What was really surprising was the fact that the taller of the two looked just like that one customer of his a couple of days ago. Definitely wasn't a common sight, a woman with yellow skin, actually, as he got a better look at it, it seemed more like fur, and a white face like that. Maybe she was related somehow to the shorter one?

"Is there anything I can do for you ladies?" The man asked as he looked between the two of them. "It's a hot day and you must be hotter in that fur..." Left unsaid was that they were both 'hot' women, rather sexy despite their foreign appearances.

Brianna shook her head and rolled her eyes. Why was it that nearly ever man seemed to notice Britanny before even glancing at her or Gina? It was getting to be annoying. Her sister was married for goodness sake! Never did help matters any that Britanny seemed to eat up the attention that those men would give her.

Britanny nodded. She knew what she wanted. The only problem that she could see that she wouldn't be able to get it the way she wanted. "I'd like to get a milkshake please. To go?"

The man nodded his head. "Yes, we do serve milkshakes in paper cups."

"Oh, good," Britanny said. She'd be able to have a cool treat while walking around searching. It rather sucked to have to go around in the hot air looking for something or someone and being hot and thirsty to boot.

"And you?" He asked, giving the slightly shorter blonde a look over. If only he were ten years younger. The blonde looked like one hell of a wildcat in the sack. That voluptuous body, the eyes, the curves... They were all just perfect. (1)

"Actually I'm looking for..." Bri stopped as she saw that the menu had, "Oreo mint?" That was surprising, to be honest, she had been expecting more traditional flavors. "Got a medium sized cone?"

"Sure thing." He smiled at them as he got them what they wanted. "Do you have a sister?" He asked while looking up at the Werecheetah. He sweat-dropped as he saw her twitch and glare at him, now that he thought about it, he did realize that it sounded like a come-on of sorts. "I didn't mean it like that. It's just that the other day I saw someone who looked a lot like you, just shorter." And less developed, but he didn't want to get beaten up over something like that.

As the vendor went about getting their orders, he failed to notice both of his patrons stop, pale and do very credible imitations of statues. When he looked back up to hand them their order, both had a peculiar look on their faces, one that nearly made him drop their order. "Y, yes?" He managed to stutter out at the peculiar gleam that entered their eyes, making him nervous, which was easy for him to admit, seeing as they were easily larger than him.

"Did she look like me, with only one eye-stripe?" The larger of the two asked, leaning in close and narrowing her eyes slightly. Seeing the man nod, she tapped her chin and nodded thoughtfully. Finally, something to go on.

Needless to say, it would make finding Grave Digger much easier than before.

(---)

Sneezing, the Lycanthropoid in question shook her head and rubbed her nose. "That was... Odd..." She murmured, wondering what that was about. That sneeze had been quick and unexpected, not to mention that there were no lingering after-effects. If she were more superstitious, she may have believed something was going to happen, something big, unexpected and highly chaotic. She wondered why she got a sudden chill when it was fairly warm outside. Her eyes narrowing, Grave Digger knew this could only mean trouble...

(---)

"Akane..." Yuka said slowly to her friend as she hid herself in a bush; binoculars in her face. "What are you doing?"

"Yeah, this isn't like you at all," Akane's other friend, Sayuri pointed out. "I don't remember you owning a set of binoculars either."

"Rented them from Nabiki," the youngest Tendo sibling explained. "As for why... I'm keeping an eye out on... her..."

Blinking their eyes in unison, both Yuka and Sayuri turned their heads to the direction Akane was facing. There stood that little furry girl from the tournament not too long ago.

It was Yuka that turned back to Akane first. "What about her?"

"What about her? Just look at her!" Akane hissed. "She was hanging out with that weird guy and," Akane paused, trying to collect her thoughts as she tried to sort out what she felt, "well, something just isn't right with her!"

Now Sayuri turned back to her friend as well. "Akane..." the girl spoke in soft tones. "Since when is anything 'right' around Nerima?"

Her eyes narrowing, Akane glowered over her situation. "Something's just 'off'. Not so much with her, but with that, that... BOY she's always with..." the Tendo heir declared as she continued to watch her target through her binoculars. "I get a feeling if I follow her, I'll get to see more of that guy she hangs with. And then I'll see the truth. We'll all see how he's nothing but a cheating foul sorcerer ensnaring girls to his whims and... and..."

Akane trailed off and blinked her eyes a few times. Bringing the binoculars down from her face, she said, "Holy shit... I sound like Kuno."

Her friends nodded. "You need to quit hanging out with him." Yuka said, shaking her head. Okay, so he threw himself at the youngest Tendo all the time, got beat up constantly by her, but most people wondered why Akane hadn't done anything more serious to Kuno to keep him from her yet.

"Yeah, yeah..." Akane muttered. She shook her head and wondered just what her problem was with the girl. She was just... So unused to seeing furry people in her life.

It made her... well, the feelings she got from seeing Grave were unfamiliar... they were strange, yet... comforting. Needless to say, it confused the hell out of Akane. She knew she didn't hate the girl, nor was she in love with her... but there was something... SOMETHING about this girl that called out to her.

Flashback...

"Mommy? Wha dis?" A very small girl asked as she looked up to an older woman who was holding out a small plushy toy to the young girl.

"It's a cheetah." Said the smiling older woman.

"Cheewah?" She said, blinking in confusion.

"A cheetah is a big kitty, Akane-chan."

"PRETTY!" The young girl gushed and hugged the plushy for all she was worth.

Seeing her daughter squeeze the plushy for all she was worth, the woman smiled, happy that she could make her youngest so happy.

Sadly, it was the last time that she could make her daughter happy like that.

End flashback...

Now, if only she could figure out what it was. She wasn't into girls; that much she knew, but she couldn't ignore the fact that she wanted to run up to the girl and hug her for all she was worth. "Hey, she's moving!" Akane said as she got up to follow the furry girl. Her friends gave each other a look, before sighing and following her.

(---)

Grave sighed as she walked to the park. She just hoped that Ranma had remembered to show up there after he was done helping his mother out. Not that she was annoyed, but it was boring to go around town without being able to hang out with her best, okay, really her only, friend and do stuff. Well, that and she really wanted some alone time with him. Which was really hard to do ever since she got here. Ranma was either doing something at school, was training in some open parking lot, which she didn't mind, since she got to watch him practice without a shirt on. She shook her head and smirked, she was so glad she didn't have to deal with certain people that she knew were just going to take care of her, and not in a good way.

Sighing, the smirk left her face as depression started to seep over her being. That wasn't something she needed to think about. But it was so easy to remember it, since it was right there in the back of her head at all times, teasing her, reminding her that she still was in their shadows, even if she now had her own life. 'Or at least as much of a life as I can have...' She thought, sighing as memories flooded her brain.

Memories of a cold night, one where she was freezing in a cave, only to get hit by a short redhead bombarded her mind. What happened next caused the girl to sweat-drop as she recalled the ensuing argument and fight. Though, she had been scared, confused and slightly angry. Turning her head, she spotted a trio of girls talking about something on the corner of the street, narrowing her eyes, she could've sworn that she had seen one of them before, though she couldn't quite place where it was. She brushed it off, deciding that it wasn't important enough to worry about, but getting to the park was.

(---)

Punch.

Kick.

Punch.

Kick.

Punch.

Kick.

It was all in the mind. That was how Ranma took to his training. He was engraining moves so he would be able to use them on reflex without having to think to do such. These past months with Grave had really shown Ranma a lot of the world around him, the world beyond him, and the world in his own backyard... okay, his mother's backyard, but the point was the same.

For years, he'd been a pompous ass-hole, figuring himself to be the greatest martial artist ever. After all, he was starting to beat his old man, whom he had viewed as the strongest. Now, with his adventures with Grave, tournaments, Ryoga... Ranma realized he was just a drop in the proverbial bucket. He was nothing but another face in the crowd when it came to fighters, and he'd yet to really do anything that would make him 'stand out', make people take notice of him... and that might be because he didn't have what it took...

Snorting, Ranma continued attacking the futon mattress wrapped around the tree, his attacks coming quicker to it now. He'd realized that he was nothing but an 'average Joe' of martial artist. Sure, he felt he was good, but there was so much greater out there. In hindsight, he could see now that his father had really, for lack of tact, FUCKED UP his training! He just _had_ to make up for lost time. He had to... or be left in the dust before he even got a career in the martial arts truly started. Balling his hand into a fist, he lashed out, destroying a good chunk of the tree that was in front of him. His eyes smoldered with determination, even as his hand throbbed slightly in pain. He couldn't just let himself be left behind in the dust. He turned his head as he heard his name being called out by someone he knew very well. "Over here, Grave!" He yelled, waving her down from the tree she was sitting on.

Smiling as she jumped down, the petite Lycanthropoid ran up to her friend. Her smile dropped slowly though as she noticed that there was something wrong with him. Nothing physical, that would've been obvious, well, maybe his hands, which were a bit red and looking sore. Narrowing her eyes, she wondered just what was wrong with him.

"Uh, what's wrong?" Ranma asked, blinking as she narrowed her eyes. He couldn't feel anything in the air that was wrong, the ground wasn't shaking, people weren't shouting at him, so, he honestly didn't think that there was anything amiss.

"You okay?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" He blinked in confusion, was she upset with him or something?

Anything Grave would've said was cut short as a call caused them both to stop and look up as a figure was leaping into the air, not that they could see much about the figure, as the sun was directly above the person, though the yell was certainly from a male attacker, rather than a female one. "RAAANMAA! PREPARE TO DIE!"

"Eh?" Ranma asked as he and Grave jumped back, as the figure smashed into the ground, a crater about the size of a Buick appearing under him. "Ryoga?!" He yelled, surprised as he jumped back another foot. He wouldn't have even really bothered with getting into a stance against anyone, but the last few fights that he had been in had really been off the chart. People just had to be insanely tough, didn't they?

There was a look in the lost boy's eyes that Ranma really didn't like, a deep rage and insanity that just screamed out an intent to maim, injure and kill. Why the hell did he have to be the target of it? 'What the hell did I do to him?' He asked himself as Ryoga sneered and hefted his umbrella up.

"Hey!" Grave yelled at the lost boy, causing him to turn to look at her. Frowning she pointed to the ground. "What the hell is up with you?! What if there were some innocent people there?!" Not that she really cared, but dammit, she had been nearly flattened by that stupid umbrella.

Ryoga blinked and thought about it. He never had such a problem, since most people tended to run away after seeing his temper and strength displays. "You know... I never thought about it."

She tried, she tried so hard to ignore it, the pull of gravity had never felt stronger, and she had never felt so much extra weight on the side of her head before, but she couldn't resist the pull, it was too strong. The crash to the ground caused her face to make an impression while her lower body stuck straight up. It was fairly humorous, as well as painful, to go through a face fault, she decided after thinking about it for a few seconds.

Ryoga shook his head and turned back on his most hated nemesis. "YOU! I'm going to... HEY! GET BACK HERE!" He bellowed and jumped after his rival, who had jumped away to the trees. Growling, the lost boy jumped up after his rival, before pulling a few bandanas off of his forehead and throwing them forward as though they were spinning knives, in an attempt to cut the branches out from under him and get the fight onto the ground.

Twisting and ducking under, around and over the flying projectiles of doom, Ranma shook his head as Ryoga seemed to have some crappy aim, even worse than he would've expected from the idiot. Sure, the guy had a hard time hitting the side of an office building when it was less than five feet from him, but those shots were way off their mark. 'Almost like he wasn't trying ta hit me.' He thought, before snorting and turning his head. "What's the matter, Ryoga? Blind as well as lost all the time?" He smirked, before ducking as another spinney object of doom flew right at him. 'Either Ryoga's gotten better, or that was just lucky.' He thought to himself as he spotted the edge of the park just up ahead, and thankfully, there wasn't anything really public nearby, save for that construction zone, well, he just hoped that there wasn't anyone working today, otherwise they'd have more to worry about than just a falling construction beam or a missing washer. Touching down softly, Ranma jumped back as Ryoga crashed down behind him. 'Well, not exactly crashed.' Ranma thought bemusedly as he saw that Ryoga barely made more of an impact than he did.

"Ugh...dammit Ranma..." Ryoga blearily called, "Get back here...ooh..." He growled before snapping the umbrella up to point at Ranma, before throwing it as though it was a spear, aimed right at Ranma, who twisted to the side to avoid the projectile and the follow-up charging kick aimed at his face. Bringing up his right hand, he deflected the kick to the side, before jumping up and over the slightly off-balance Ryoga, all the while twisting so that he was upside down in mid-air and smacking the lost boy in the back of the head, causing him to tumble forward slightly, before he slapped a hand onto the ground and flipped into a roll a few feet before righting himself and sliding to a halt just in front of a small cliff. Small in the fact that it was only fifteen feet from the top to the hard earth below. 'Well, that and all that construction equipment', Ryoga balefully reminded himself as he turned to face his hated rival with a gleam in his eyes.

Ranma narrowed his eyes as he saw Ryoga stop himself from falling down, not that he really expected the Lost Boy to fall down and get lost, but he could always hope. "Shee, what the hell did I do to you?"

"You did enough!" Ryoga yelled out before jumping at his foe, who blinked, sweat-dropped, and twitched his body to the side slightly, causing the bandana-clad fighter to sail harmlessly to the left. "Dammit, stop running you coward!" He growled as he landed and spun around with a kick aimed at Ranma's head.

Jumping and leaning back, Ranma mentally shook his head, at least as he was now, Ryoga wasn't too hard to deal with. He was still as straight-forward as ever, which made it fairly easy to deal with him. Flipping in mid-air, Ranma touched down a foot away from the edge and smirked at Ryoga as the idiot was rushing at him. 'Shouldn't be too hard.' He thought to himself.

So, why was he getting this horrible feeling?

(---)

Grave rubbed her head as she stood up as Ryoga ran after her friend. Oh, she wasn't't too worried about Ranma. He could handle that idiot in a normal fight with no problem. 'But, then why do I feel so worried?' She frowned, before blinking as a revelation came over her. "Wait a second... Didn't he have a curse?" Paling as she remembered just what happened the last time the idiot's curse activated, Grave got to her feet and ran in the direction that the two fighters had gone in.

She didn't dare use magic to fly, not yet anyway. The thought of her "family" finding her because of her magic use was still prevalent in her mind. She knew that old man that her "sisters" called dad was quite strong and skilled when it came to magic, those memories of that flaming skull were bad enough, she didn't want to know what he could do if he was truly motivated.

(---)

In a hidden city on another plane of existence, an older man sneezed as he lit up his cigar. Sniffling, the elder man wondered what that was about, before he went back to his paper work and looked over a few papers and plans of his. He smirked as everything was going according to his plan.

(---)

Dodging, twisting and weaving around trees, Grave Digger ran, worried for her friend, not if he fought that idiot normally, but if he fought that idiot if said idiot was in cursed form. 'What was his name again? Byogi? Ryogen? Ryogi? Ryoga!' Not that he deserved to be called anything but idiot, jerk or moron in her opinion. After all, who the hell went around trying to... Grave skidded to a halt, her eyes widening as something... Horrible overcame her. "Am... Am I like that?" She wondered aloud as she thought about her past actions, the attack of Genn, even though he was trying to help when she was first created, and all he had tried to do was warn Gina and Britanny. She didn't think those mages were innocent in the least, they had been talking about killing her right in her face! Those two Werejaguars were just trying to help her and protect the people around them, okay, so those weapons were lethal, the shorter one, Sheila, had said so, but it wasn't until she had attacked them that they fought back against her.

An image of herself wearing brown pants, a yellow shirt, and a bandanna flooded her mind as she tried to kill Britanny and Gina. That didn't bother her too much, it was the after-effects that did. She closed her eyes and staggered in place as images of people bombarded her, most of them she didn't really know, were looking pained as they tried to get through their lives with missing limbs, fingers, feet, and other body parts. "Could... Could I have turned out like him?"

She shivered at the unpleasant thought. Was... Was she really like him? Terrified, she sat down, thinking about how she was and her future.

(---)

Ryoga grunted as he hit the ground. He wouldn't have even felt it normally, but the kick to his gut and the subsequent twenty-five foot drop down to the base of the construction zone managed to knock the wind out of him. Grinning as he felt a rock under his hand, he pulled the large slab of earth out from the ground and threw it up at Ranma, who was still practically floating in mid-air. "Get down here, you bastard!" He called out, grinning savagely as Ranma dodged, but came down to earth quicker. His grin was short-lived as Ranma's foot was introduced to his face, again. Growling, he back-flipped to get the jerk off of him, his foot flying up in a desperate attempt to hit Ranma's back.

Ranma grimaced as Ryoga's foot connected to his back, sending him flying off of the lost boy. Flipping in mid-air, he landed on his feet and shook his head. The hit wasn't that powerful, it was still annoying that he allowed himself to get hit like that. "Oh, come on, Ryoga... That all you got?" He smirked, feeling better about this already. Ryoga wasn't anything too seriously dangerous without his cursed form giving him extra size, strength, reach and power.

Growling at the insult, Ryoga smirked back. "I don't know. At least I don't hit like a little girl." He nearly laughed as Ranma's expression changed from arrogant to indignant. "What's wrong? Can't take the truth?" He smirked, before blinking as Ranma seemingly disappeared from in front of him, only to appear two inches away from him. "What the?" He managed to stammer out, before he was punched in the face three times, grabbed by his shirt and thrown over Ranma's shoulder and back-first into a support beam that was standing straight up. Groaning as he slumped to the ground, Ryoga shook his head and stood back up. 'Okay, don't call him a girl in the future.' He thought bitterly. Those punches had not only hurt, but the speed and the throw was surprising as hell. His eyes gleamed as he noticed something less than a foot away from him. Even if he heard voices in his head when that change over-took him, if he could just pound his revenge into that jerk of a rival, that would be more than enough for him. He'd deal with those stupid voices later.

Standing up and shaking his head, he looked at Ranma, who was glaring at him, before rushing at him. Grimacing, he dodged the first punch, but the knee to his gut was much harder to avoid. Grimacing as he hit the steel beam again, Ryoga head-butted Ranma, causing him to stagger back a couple of feet. While he was stunned, the lost boy turned and jumped forward, cupped his hands and dunked them into the murky, muddy water puddle, before bringing it up to his face and splashing himself. He grinned as he could feel that small amount of cool water activate a familiar change in his body.

Ranma shook his head to clear the dizzyness away, when he looked, Ryoga was off to the side and splashing himself with something. His eyes widened as he realized just what that was. "Oh shit." Was all he could say as Ryoga grew in size and muscle mass. He took a step back as Ryoga's hair grew longer and wilder, going down his back, as a strange body suit covered the lost boy.

Ryoga grinned and turned to face his rival. Sure, he was well over seven feet tall now, but his new strength and height gave him some advantages. Namely that certain people wouldn't be able to hit him in the head. "Now, DIE!" He cried out, lashing out at Ranma's head with a kick that the pigtailed martial artist was hard-pressed to avoid. Growling as his attack missed, Ryoga twisted slightly and punched straight down, causing a small crater as Ranma rolled out of the way. Grinning as he stood back up, Ryoga chuckled and cracked his knuckles; oh this was going to be fun. Well, at least until those stupid voices spoke up again. Ryoga felt that steel beam that Ranma had thrown him into earlier. While he knew he could lift beams and telephone poles right out of the ground, it still took a bit of effort to actually do so, in this form though...

"Aw fuck..." Ranma cursed as Ryoga grabbed that I-beam, his fingers dug into the steel, before yanking it out of the ground. He wasn't too surprised that the rest of the building that was already being built didn't fall over, after all, it was just one support beam out of a few dozen. It did, however, look a bit like a gently curving U-shape at that moment. He quickly jumped to the side as Ryoga tried to smash him like a bug.

Ranma grinned sardonically as he jumped up and onto the wire-framed building. 'Boy, aren't these guys going to be mad in the morning?' He thought and slipped around on the beams, trying to avoid Ryoga as he broke the beam that was in his hands into pieces and started throwing them at him every time he caught a glimpse of his red shirt. 'Hmm...'

Ryoga growled as he held less than half of a steel beam. He could've lifted this in his normal form with ease, that umbrella of his was at least a few dozen pounds heavier than the beam was. Seeing a flash of red, he threw the remaining half of his beam with all he had, though he blinked as all he tore through was a red shirt with no one inside. "What the?"

"That was my favorite shirt, ya jerk!" Ryoga turned, just in time to catch Ranma's foot impacting his jaw and sending him sliding back several feet. "Now, why'd you go and do that?" He winced slightly, damn, did Ryoga's face get harder or was that just him?

Wiping some spit off of his face, Ryoga smirked at him. "That all?" He asked, before rushing in, his hands glowing and crackling with energy. He chuckled as Ranma jumped back on top of the beams. "That won't help you this time!" He called out as he punched forward at the beams, the collected energy leaving his hands and breaking through the hard steel as though it wasn't even there.

The structure shuddered, groaned and valliently tried to hold on. In the end though, it couldn't support itself with the loss of its middle portion.

Ranma stared at the damage, before his body's instincts took over and he jumped from one falling beam to another as dust and debris were tossed up into the air. The last thing he needed was to be squished and injured by the falling metal bars. He breathed a sigh of relief as he managed to jump completely out of the wreckage without getting hit by any of those falling beams. He felt, rather than saw, Ryoga appear right behind him. Twisting his body was fortunate; otherwise he would've taken a serious hit to his spine. As it was, his side was hit with enough force to make him grit his teeth in pain, and go flying back into the ground in a heap. Groaning as the dust settled, Ranma rolled out of the way of the foot that was coming down to crush his face. "Ya know, you could've hurt me!" He complained while bouncing back a couple of feet.

"What do you think I was trying to do!" Was the snarled reply.

Ranma narrowed his eyes slightly and slid into a defensive stance. His best bet was to somehow get Ryoga wet with hot water, wear him out, or somehow get the idiot lost.

(---)

Stryyp looked at his wife as she took him, Genn and Brianna down the street with purpose. Yes, he was worried about this "alter ego" of Brianna's, but he was also worried about his wife. She was nervous, fidgety and strung higher than a kite. The Kryn frowned thoughtfully as they walked down another section of the city. He honestly didn't know what the whole purpose of them finding this "Grave Digger" was. Even if they found her, what were they supposed to do? Sure, he could hope that she'd be friendly with him around, but from what he knew, Brianna's other half wasn't too friendly with the other three people in the group.

Behind the large Tiger-man, Genn shared his thoughts privately. As far as she knew, Grave would just turn on them as soon as look at them. She looked at Brianna, who was just in front of her, and was even more worried. The blonde was her best friend, even if she did some crazy, unusual and sometimes downright idiotic things, she needed to face this, even if it could kill her. Genn was worried though. This wasn't Jade, this was Earth, and it could be even worse for Grave Digger to go crazy here compared to what happened in Seer's Hamlet. The Rakshasa shivered at the thoughts that ran through her head at that moment. That was probably the last thing that they needed, an insane little aura mage running around and attacking everyone just to get rid of them. She was shook out of her thoughts as she ran face-first into Brianna's back. Due to the unexpected stop, she lost her balance and flopped down on her butt. "Owwie." She groaned, darn cement was pretty darn hard. "Why'd we stop?" She asked while rubbing her bruised posterior.

"Britanny said she heard something." Was Brianna's reply as she looked around, trying to figure if there was something out there making unusual noise.

"Huh?"

"It's like... There's an explosion that just happened." Britanny muttered and frowned. Dammit, she had just heard it too.

"Which direction?" Stryyp asked as he looked around, no one was reacting to anything, so it was probably pretty far off.

"I think... There it is! That way!" Britanny snapped her head up as she pointed to the west. That time she was sure she heard an explosion of sorts. Hopefully they could find out where that girl was.

(---)

"ACHOO!" Grave shook her head and sniffed slightly. That one had hurt slightly. She ran forward as she heard another explosion. Now something bad was happening, really bad by the sounds of it. As she got to the edge of the park, she noticed the construction zone across the street. Running, she jumped on top of the moving cars in an attempt to get across quickly. While she didn't have any extra-ordinary human skills like Britanny or Brianna, she could still use her magic to give her small boosts to her abilities. Like jumping over cars that were moving fast enough to seriously hurt her if one hit her.

Landing on the other side of the street, she ran into the construction area and stared at the pile of fallen, melted, mangled and destroyed beams of steel that were in a haphazard pile. "Wow..." She muttered, impressed with the destruction.

She shook her head and looked around, before finally spotting Ranma. "Oh no!" She gasped, shocked as she saw that the guy from earlier had managed to get splashed with water again. "Dammit!" She cursed and ran out, noticing that Ranma was in trouble. Well, at least she thought he was in trouble. He might have been fine, but she had to know for sure.

(---)

Ranma rolled away from another punch downwards at him. It was taking every ounce of his concentration and speed to avoid those punches and kicks. Even so, he had taken a few blows to his body. Nothing too serious, but it looked like Ryoga wasn't going to wear out any time soon, and the lost boy seemed to be too focused on him to get lost this time. And without any hot water around, he wondered just what he could do. He needed to practice a bit, but he was sure that he could figure out just how Ryoga was throwing those Ki blasts around at him. 'That is, if I get through this.' He thought balefully.

Ryoga growled slightly, even with his more powerful form, he had a hard time hitting and hurting his rival. Not to mention that while he was weaker, he still managed to wind him slightly. A few attacks here, a few there, and all the chasing and dodging had started to get to him. Not that he'd pass out at the moment, since he still had a lot of stamina and endurance left. "Trying to wear me down, Ranma? That's not going to work and you know it." Ryoga blinked as Ranma started smirking at him. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing much, but if I had some hot water, you'd probably be very worn out, wouldn't you?" It was a gamble, Ranma knew. He didn't know much about the cursed form that Ryoga had or how much transferred from one body to another. He just hoped that if he could change Ryoga back to normal that he'd be worn out enough that he couldn't put up enough of a fight to do anything. He winced; the few blows that he had taken were taking their toll on him. Any more and he was sure that he'd lose this fight. 'Dammit, I... Can't lose like this!' He mentally cried out.

Seeing Ranma stagger slightly, Ryoga brought his hands up to his chest and cupped them. He grinned as Ki energy started gathering and condensing between his hands, arcing and snapping from one hand to another. "Now try this! AEGIS..."

"No you don't! Scalding MYST!"

Ryoga lost his concentration and turned to the sound of the voice. "It's you!" He shouted, surprised, before he felt something hot and wet fall over his skin. "What the?"

Ranma chuckled as he saw what was going on. "Sorry, Ryoga, but you do remember that hot water reverses the curse, right?"

"Whaaa?!"

"That's right, you asshole!" Grave growled at him as the curse was reversed.

"N... NOOO!!" Ryoga cried out as he felt himself lose size, strength and power. "I..Impossible!" He panted, feeling all the energy and extra stamina leave his body in an instant. He turned his head as he felt a polite tap on his shoulder. Turning his head, his eyes widened as a fist impacted his face hard enough to send him flying back a few feet and onto the ground. "Urrgh..." He groaned as he struggled to stand up.

Ranma smirked tiredly, so he was right, the more tired Ryoga got in his cursed form was highly compounded when he returned to normal. Walking over to the lost boy, Ranma picked him up. "I don't see why you're so upset, Ryoga. Your curse isn't that bad... At least you get stronger with it." He said, sighing, before letting go of Ryoga and punting him into the distance.

"Couldn't you have done that earlier?" Grave asked him as she walked up to him. She was concerned though, Ranma was sweating, panting and had a bit of a glazed look to his eyes.

"Would've... If I could have..." Ranma panted out before slumping down onto the ground.

"Ranma?" Grave asked worriedly as she grabbed his side and had him lean against her. "Come on, let's get you home."

Ranma was too exhausted at that moment to put up much of an argument, he just nodded and let her lead him home.

As she helped him, Grave smiled to herself. Ranma was safe, the idiot was beaten and on top of it all, she got to feel him without a shirt on. 'Mmm... Muscely.' She thought to herself giddily.

As she led Ranma away from the construction site, she missed several eyes that spotted her leading him away. 'Finally.' Several of the people thought at the same time.

* * *

Preview of next chapter: 

"Hey! Grave here! Well, that wasn't very fun at all! What the? Who's that? No . . . Not you! Not here!"

Note: Sorry for not getting this out sooner. Been playing a bunch of games, both video and traditional, work's been a pain, (and trying to find a second job so that I can have some spending cash), and worrying about my health, (been into the clinic, had a test and a lab and I still don't know what the hell's wrong with me), life has been horrible lately. (Recently found out that my health is good, but it still took them forever to figure that out.)

(1) Been channeling my inner Jiraiya and Happosai lately. What do you expect?

(2) Just a bit silly "Spinney object of doom". Been watching too much Naruto and Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged Series lately. Go to Youtube and look for them.

(3) What? You think I forgot about that spell? HA!


	28. 26

Grave's New Life

Chapter 26

Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma 1/2, Gold Digger, or Ninja High School. They belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sama, High Lord Fred Perry and Godfather Ben Dunn respectively.

* * *

"So, that's it, is it?" A wizened voice said softly as she and her young charge watched what happened from a nearby tree. It wasn't everyday that she saw someone from those cursed grounds this far away from them. 

The Matriarch of the Amazons narrowed her eyes as she watched the short Werecheetah lead away the impressive fighter. Oh yes, she knew about Lycanthropes. Having dealt with a few of them in her life-time, she knew a lot more about them than most people would ever have privy to in their entire lives. Still, she had thought that they had been wiped out years ago, as none had been seen in a good while. 'Guess they really did just leave this world for another.' She mused to herself as she observed what was happening.

Next to her, her granddaughter frowned as she looked at the wanton destruction in the construction yard. She didn't doubt her own prowess for even an instant, but seeing most of that fight had made her nervous about her chances of actually winning a fight against either that pigtailed fighter or the other one. Not having seen such skill from people outside of her village, she was surprised, to put it mildly. She knew that her great-grandmother could easily handle the both of them, but she actually doubted how well she'd do in such a fight. She knew she could put up a good fight, barring tricky hits and slips under her guard. She wondered why her great-grandmother had wanted to watch that fight. Granted, it had been really, really good and she could still feel the rush of such excitement flowing through her veins at that moment. "Great-grandma, why did you want to watch?" She asked in Mandarin.

The older of the two didn't answer right away. She was still focused on the short Werecheetah, it was hard to believe, but she found what she had been searching for the whole time she was here. "You'll see." She said softly. "Come, we have work to do." She said as they jumped from their tree and bounded to the skyline of the city. It wouldn't do to be caught after all.

(---)

"Brianna, calm down!" Britanny practically hissed as she held her sister back from doing something potentially stupid and dangerous, not to mention possibly suicidal. Though, she had a vague idea what her younger sister was going through at that moment, since it took a lot of her willpower to not rush down there and do the same thing herself. Still, a construction zone

that was completely demolished wasn't something that they could ignore. Practically everything in that lot was utterly destroyed, and as far as she could tell, the kid with Grave Digger wasn't too badly hurt, just severely exhausted and roughed up a bit. If he could survive something like that,

she shuddered to think just how much he could really do if pushed. "Don't just go rushing down there?" She whispered, still feeling slightly tense.

Squeezing his wife's shoulder in a comforting manner, Stryyp looked down at the wreckage site. Having caught the tail-end of the fight, he wasn't sure exactly what happened, all he knew was that what had happened was caused by something far more dangerous than he had imagined. Steel beams that were made to hold up a skyscraper were durable by nature, and there were several bent, warped, crushed and broken beams scattered all around on the ground. Some actually looked slightly melted from where he was. He may not have had his wife's eyes, but when the ends looked similar to dripping liquid cheese on the end of a wire wisp, then something was wrong. If he was a betting man, he would've bet that there was still steam coming off some of that metal.

Taking several deep breaths to calm down, the Lycanthropoid in question nodded. As much as she hated to admit it, going off half-cocked was a sure way to get blown to hell and back. Flashes of memories of what happened in Seer's Hamlet bombarded her mind. Even if people on Earth weren't technophiles like the people on Jade were, it would still be one hell of a problem if massive explosions and damage occurred while she was trying to stop her other self from doing crazy things.

"What do you want to do now?" Stryyp asked, though he had a feeling that he knew what was going to happen. To be honest, he was curious about what was going on. How was it that Brianna's inner self was able to stay alive like that? He would have thought that someone split like that wouldn't be able to function properly, or at the very least, cause some serious problems.

"Well, we could follow them and find out where they're going." Genn spoke softly from behind. To be honest, she was slightly shocked by the way that Brianna's other half was acting. If she didn't know any better, she would have honestly said that the short Werecheetah was actually worried about that boy. 'Then again…' Her thoughts trailed off as the others were looking at her. "What?"

"You kind of drifted off there, Genn, you okay?"

Shaking her head, the Rakshasa nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine, Bri. Just something was on my mind." To be honest, she was wondering how the heck Britanny could be so danged calm at that moment. She had half-expected the Werecheetah, or Brianna, to rush down there and make a tense situation even worse than it already was.

"There's a lot on all our minds, Genn..." the Lycanthropoid responded to the Rakshasa as she looked towards her other half, the smaller petite Werecheetah... she saw as Grave tried to lift the boy and had no trouble of it... and then the girl started floating.

"We better decide something..." Brianna clucked her tongue. "She's going to get away and we'll lose her again..." and she wanted to make sure that little potential trouble-maker stayed within viewing distance.

"I could follow," Britanny told her younger sister/semi-daughter. "I am full Werecheetah and I got speed that surpasses yours... no offense, Bri," she added that last part quickly as to not damage her younger sibling's ego any worse than it already had been.

"Brit, we're only fast directionally, we can't turn for shit..." Brianna grumbled as she saw Grave starting to take to the sky. "And with how crowded and narrow streets here are..."

That made Britanny wince, as the Werecheetah realized that, yes, with magic on her side, (and therefore levitation) it would have been easy for the small furry woman to lose them in an areas such as this.

But then an answer came to the fore. "I'll go," Stryyp said seriously.

"MUFFIN!" Britanny screeched. "You can't just go and put yourself in dan-MUFFIN!!!!" The Werecheetah cried as her husband started to take to the air as well.

No, it wasn't that her husband, the former prince of El Dorado was a magician of any sort. With the Artifacts of the Kryn embedded within his body, he was allowed numerous powers and abilities, including numerous forms of telekinesis... and that included levitation.

The Kryn felt bad as he could hear his wife's shouting and cries from down below, but he knew at this point, he'd have the best chance of tracking where Grave Digger was heading to. And so, catching side of Grave heading Southeast, the Kryn started to take off in that direction as well, intent on finding where she landed, and then returning back to his group. After all, his teleportation depended on familiarity with surrounding, but hopefully, he could focus on a person for it as well... someone he had a deep connection to...

Like his wife.

(---)

"Great-grandma, look."

"Hmm?" The ancient Amazon wondered and looked to where her great granddaughter was pointing. Raising an eyebrow, she thought she was seeing things at first, but then quickly realized that, yes, there was indeed a flying orange and black furred man not too far from where they were, and able to keep up with them was even more impressive, in her book at least. She didn't believe in coincidence, though the idea of a large Tiger-man following the same person that they were certainly was weird. "Interesting…" She muttered, wondering if maybe the small Werecheetah had broken some law within the magical community. It wouldn't have been the first time that a mage had done so, whether willingly or unwillingly, although the timing of the Tiger-man was suspect at best.

But that made Cologne consider something that didn't occur to her before. A Tiger-Man? She knew it wasn't a weretiger, there was nothing magical about him that screamed 'Lycanthrope' to her, so that was out... but the power he was radiating, as if it was from an outside source... mayhaps from magical tools or artifacts.

And when it came to magical items and relics, it was something that not only her people, but the Phoenix and the MUSK strove to collect. Her eyes narrowing, Cologne was coming to a possible conclusion. "Xian-Pu."

The younger Amazon warrior blinked her eyes as she turned to her elder. "Yes, great-grandmother?"

"We best follow that one..." Cologne said solemnly as her eyes narrowed. "We need to make sure it's not the Musk taking interest in this as well." Left unsaid was the fact that the last thing they needed was the Musk in the area. While she could easily handle anything short of the Royal Family's personal guards without any problems, the more Musk in the area, the more likely that they could over-power her heir. As good as Xian-Pu was, Ku Lon was skeptical of her ability to handle more than one Musk warrior.

The younger Amazon nodded and frowned lightly. She didn't think that the Musk would be this far out without a reason, but taking another look at the flying Tiger-man, who was starting to pull ahead of them, she decided that just maybe there was something to her relative's worries about the Musk being in Japan. "Right." She muttered as they continued on, staying out of sight of the flying Tiger-man.

(---)

Looking to his right, Stryyp blinked, he thought he had seen a flash of purple and white there for a moment, but now it was gone. 'What was that?' He wondered to himself before turning back and watching as Grave Digger helped her exhausted acquaintance, he didn't know what that person was to her exactly and he hesitated to call the person her friend, as far as he knew, he was just helping her with a place to live at the moment. He paused for a moment and landed on an outstretched pole, before kneeling down to grip the bar as he watched them walk down the street. What was amazing, in his opinion, was that most people didn't seem to be afraid, nervous or seemed to find the scene weird. Were people that used to seeing weird and unusual things that a Werecheetah and an exhausted human with her was common-place?

Stryyp sweat-dropped as he remembered just where he lived, incidents of weird and unusual events were commonplace there, so why not elsewhere in the world? He was about to fly down to the street when someone poked him on the shoulder. "Huh?" He asked as he turned, blinking as he saw a girl, most likely in her late teens or early adulthood, with green hair, he blinked and blinked again as he noticed that all she was wearing were tiger striped yellow boots with a matching bikini top and bottom and nothing else. "Can I help you?" He asked, wondering if he saw horns peeking out from on top of her hair.

"Yes." The girl nodded. "You wouldn't happen to have seen my darling, would you?"

"Excuse me?" He blinked, wondering who she was talking about.

At those words, the girl looked crestfallen. "Oh, you must not be from around here. Sorry about that." She said, flying off shortly afterwards.

"What was that about?" Asked a very confused Kryn, who blinked in confusion.

(---)

Grave looked at Ranma, who was slumping against her slightly, his arm was over her shoulder, but she could tell he was getting a bit tired, though she wondered if maybe he was leaning on her to conserve energy. "You okay?" She was a bit worried though. What if he was actually really hurt?

"Huh?" Ranma blinked at her, before turning away, his face reddening when he realized just how close her face was to his. "Yeah, I'm fine."

"Really?" She asked softly.

Blinking, he turned his head to look at her in confusion. "Huh? What's with that?"

"What's with what?" Grave asked, frowning lightly.

"Nothing." He muttered softly before waving off Grave's concerns about him.. His mind was already several miles away.

(---)

Groaning as he pulled himself out of a huge crater in the ground, the Eternally Lost Boy shook his head to clear the cobwebs from his mind. "Damn you, Ranma." He growled.

'Who the heck is Ranma, Benji?' A voice suddenly spoke up from nowhere.

"What the? Who's there?! Show yourself, you coward!!" Ryoga yelled while looking around frantically. He couldn't feel anyone nearby, nor did he see anything out of place, but he knew something was wrong.

'You know who I am, Benji. How could you forget about me so easily? I'm hurt.' The voice said in a slightly whiny tone of voice.

"I don't know who you are and I'm not Benji!!" He bellowed, growling angrily as he moved to where he thought the voice was coming from. "Now get out here and show yourself, you coward!!" He screamed before jumping at a bush, ripping it out of the ground to see if the person talking to him was behind it. He growled as he saw nothing there. "WHERE ARE YOU?!"

'Shut up, Benji. I'm in your head. Although I thought that I was the one in charge.' The voice sighed lightly before clearing its throat, though, from what Ryoga could hear, the sound was right next to his ears. 'I guess you must've forgotten, you fool. It is I, Dr. Alfred Steiner Peachbody, your master and trainer.'

"WHAT?!" Ryoga yelled incredulously as he looked around the area with a wild look in his eyes. "You… You're in my head?!" He hollered, sounding slightly crazy. 'Dammit, first Ranma humiliates me and now this?! This isn't fair!!' He wailed inside his head.

'Do you have to be so loud? I can hear you just fine!' The voice complained to him. 'Wait a second here…' The voice said, seemingly contemplating something.

"What now?" Ryoga groaned in dismay. He really, REALLY didn't need this. Why couldn't Ranma get a horrible curse like this? All he got was turned into a girl; people didn't look at him, run away in fear and then scream because he started to sound like more than one person. It was probably for the best that Ryoga's mind was blocking out all the times he lashed out in anger in his cursed form and turned several small villages and towns into ruins in only a few moments.

'You… Don't sound like Benji, now that I think about it. Who are you?! Where's Benji?!' The voice snarled and started growling, or at least it sounded like it was growling.

"That's what I was trying to tell you! I don't know who the hell this Benji person is! My name's Ryoga Hibiki." He practically snarled out as he sat down on the ground. He wasn't the best at meditation, but he needed to do something while he tried to figure out what to do about this evil creature that possessed him.

'We need to talk.' The voice said gravely, causing Ryoga to gulp despite himself.

(---)

Rubbing her forehead, Genn wondered what she did in a past life to have so much bad karma now. That was the only explanation that she could figure out. Then again, considering who her mother was… 'Great, sins of my "mother" pass onto me as bad karma.' The Raksasha groaned in dismay as she watched Brianna try and stop Britanny from rushing out after her husband.

"Brit, calm down, will ya?!" Brianna yelled at her sister, who looked like she was about to tear down the street after her husband. "Rushing after him will do nothing, alright?!" She hated yelling like she was, mostly because she was pretty sure that she sounded as worried as she felt, which wasn't helping the situation in the slightest.

Growling lightly, the Werecheetah in question took several deep breaths before shaking her head. "But, Bri... Muffin's out there chasing down a lunatic by himself." True, she could have chased after him, but, like Bri said, she had horrible turning abilities.

Rubbing her temples, Brianna muttered something that sounded suspitiously like "calm down, stupid", but Britanny couldn't tell for sure, it was too muttered and quiet for her to understand completely, and she had super-sharp hearing. "I know that! You think I want to sit here?!" Hell, it was taking all her willpower to not just rush after Stryyp and that little manifestation of evil that he was following.

Genn frowned lightly as she sensed the anxiety in the air increase as her two friends got more and more agitated with each passing moment. 'This sucks almost as bad as when Brianna and her other half tore up Seer's Hamlet.' She groused. "Hey, Brianna..."

"Yeah?"

"How come you didn't just tear after her?" That was bothering Genn for awhile now. The way Brianna was acting, something had changed, but what? She just had to know. She blinked as Brianna went silent and looked down for several minutes, her features seemingly cast in shadow. "Brianna?"

"It's just... I dunno." She said softly, causing both Genn and Britanny to stare at her in shock. "I... I'm worried, I can't deny that. But... For some reason, I... I can't hurt her, as much as I want to, I just, I just can't." She said softly. "But, I don't know why, I just... I don't know." Sighing as her shoulders slumped, Brianna shook her head. "I... I just can't. I look at her, and... As much as I want to, something's stopping me from doing anything to her."

"Bri..." Her sister said softly and reached out, squeezing her youngest sister's shoulder reasurringly.

"I'll... I'll be fine, Brit, really." She said, looking up and smiling. "But, thanks for being there."

* * *

Preview of next chapter 

"Hey, Grave here! Look, Ranma, we're home."  
"Goodie... Zzzzz..."  
"Hey! Don't fall asleep on me! Grr! I swear!"

(1) I can't get Lum's inflictions correct, sorry if I messed that up.

Okay, so this chapter was shorter by several pages than what I was originally planning on doing. My appologies. Hope you all enjoy it. And, hey, it's faster than my last update.


	29. 27

Grave's New Life

Chapter 27

Disclaimer: I wish I owned the series involved. Really, I do. Ranma, Gold Digger, and Steamhead are owned by their respective owners.

* * *

Sighing and panting slightly as she practically drug her best friend down the street. 'Thank god I can use magic to boost my strength.' She thought, knowing that she wouldn't be able to carry the dead weight the way she was. Even so, she was glad that she hadn't run into anyone else that might have been a problem, the looks she was getting from people was starting to worry her. 'This really sucks.' She thought to herself with a sigh, while Ranma wasn't exactly very heavy, he was hardly awake, and a bit bigger than she was, making it even harder for her to help him down the street and away from the recent destruction site.

"Huh?" Ranma said groggily as he raised his head up and looked around. "Whaaa?" He slurred out as he looked around, his eyes only partly open.

"You fell asleep on your feet." Was the whispered reply. Such a reply seemed to wake him up in an instant.

"Huh?" He looked around, blinking in surprise as people looked at him and Grave Digger weirdly. "Whoops." He chuckled in embarrassment as he rubbed the back of his head.

Giving him a flat look, Grave shook her head and sighed. "How the heck can you fall asleep while walking?" Seriously, wasn't that stupid or something? "What if that idiot came back while you were asleep?" She asked worriedly.

Ranma scratched the back of his head and grinned slightly at her flustered look. "Not sure. Usually I don't fall asleep like that." The last time he fell asleep on his feet was about four years ago after that six-hour spar he had with his old man. Now that he thought about it, he was kind of missing his old man, not by much, but it was still there. Having someone around for ten years in a row suddenly gone for around six to eight months was quite different than he was used to.

Shaking her head, the Lycanthropoid wondered if he could have made it to his mother's home before falling asleep somewhere. Hopefully he could, but considering that he drifted off to sleep, or close to it, for a few minutes, she had her doubts. "Well, shall we go?" Getting a nod from Ranma, the two continued on, unknowing of the people up above paying attention to the both of them.

(---)

Growling, Britanny's tail lashed from side to side as she prowled the lot. "We should have gone with him!" She cried out in despair as she threw her hands up into the air in frustration.

Brianna and Genn sighed as they sat on the ground and continued thier card game. While they agreed, on some levels, they really didn't want to start a fight where there were a lot of people. They both jumped when a golden-furred leg stomped the ground between them. Looking up, they sweat-dropped as Britanny glared at them. "Yeah?" Brianna asked as Britanny grabbed her shoulder and yanked her to her feet. "Oww! What the hell?! Brit! Calm the hell down!" Brianna yelped as she glared at her sister while trying to get her balance back.

The Werecheetah in question took a deep breath, closed her eyes, before turning around and walking away. "Brianna... We're going to follow them now."

"But..."

"No time, now hurry up!" She yelled as she jogged off. Behind her, both Genn and Brianna sighed, but followed. It would be better to go with her. Maybe Brit could smell out where Grave Digger, Stryyp and that other guy went off to, doubtful, but possible.

Brianna shivered, something felt like death crawled down her back, kicked her in the hips, then proceeded to gut her. 'What the hell was that?' She wondered to herself.

(---)

Grave looked at Ranma, smiling slightly. The two had walked in comfortable silence for the past hour or so. Smirking slightly, she waited till Ranma looked at her in confusion, before she leaned in and kissed him on the lips. It wasn't anything special, just a quick kiss on the lips, but it still managed to make Ranma stiffen up slightly. Breaking the kiss, she giggled as she looked at his face. The silly look definately was worth that.

Ranma blushed slightly and chuckled while rubbing the back of his neck. Honestly, he didn't mind it, he just wished that Grave would've given him some more warning than what she had. Honestly, it was slightly embarrassing to him.

Grave smiled and ran ahead of him, giggling as she told him to catch up. With a smirk on his face, Ranma ran after her. It wasn't like he had much else to do and this would be a good way to pass some time.

Grave smiled as she saw Ranma coming to her. "So Ranma..." she started to say in a teasing voice. "Think you can keep up with me?"

Raising an eyebrow to that, Ranma asked, "You challenging me?"

A small grin spread across the shorter Lycanthropoid's face. "Mmmmaybe..." her answer was laced with a tone of playfulness.

"You're on!" Ranma declared and lunged at her, only to nearly trip as she jumped out of the way at the last second. "Okay, I'll get you!" He declared, chuckling as she shrieked and giggled.

"Oh? Get me, will you?" Grave asked as she came floating down to stand atop of a mailbox. She was flexing her leg muscles, as if ready to jump once more.

Ranma narrowed his eyes slightly. Oh, he wasn't upset, her ability to use magic might just make this game more fun. Not to mention more challenging. "Yep." He said as he ran at her quickly.

Grinning, Grave waited for Ranma to be right up to her...

Before she literally rocketed up into the sky, in a straight line... as Ranma crashed into the Mailbox, Grave pouted lightly. "You okay? She asked as she came down for a landing...

...right atop his head.

Ranma looked up at Grave as she looked down at him, the angle of the sun and the way she was standing on his head gave him a good view of the curvature of her front. "Uh... Yeah." He said, before reaching up and tagging her lightly. "You're it." He said as he rolled out from under her.

Of course, with Ranma's luck, he had tagged Grave on her butt, leaving her slightly blushing as people looked at them. "Ooooh!" She said in mock-annoyance. Taking to the air lightly, Grave grinned. She saw the pigtailed teenager running and shouted after him. "You can't run away, Ranma!"

"Well, catch me then!" He yelled back as he ran and laughed at her while she chased after him. Honestly, this was probably the most fun he had outside of a good fight.

Grave smirked and came down divebombing at Ranma, arms stretched out. "Gonna get YOU!" She shouted out with glee as she sped up towards the pigtailed teen. Thank goodness for magic! Still, it was a risk. Hopefully that jerk of a so-called father of hers wasn't scanning for active magic users. There couldn't be that many on Earth.

"Yeah right!" Ranma yelled back, smirking at her as he ran faster... Straight into a telephone pole.

At least this time, he had enough sense to twist to the side to avoid running THROUGH the telephone pole. 'Once is more than enough, thank you.' Ranma thought to himself.

"GOT'CHA!" Grave shouted. Having to stop and turn was more than enough of a pause for the flying Lycanthropoid to latch onto him in a hug.

Ranma stiffened slightly as she grinned at him. "Uhh... Grave..." Really, he would've said more, but it was kind of hard to do that when his mouth was otherwise occupied by hers. Not that it was a bad kiss, honestly. He rather liked them, and the hugs, it was very nice.

After a moment or so, Grave broke the kiss. "Caught you!" She stuck her tongue out cutely at him.

Ranma blushed and nodded. "uh huh..." He said, rather lamely. Honestly, her body felt really nice against his. He really didn't like the looks that everyone was giving him, but that didn't really matter. Idly, he wondered if she was going to let go of him at all with the way she was hugging him tightly.

The Lycanthropoid continued to smile happily. "Ranma...?" She asked softly.

"Yeah?" He asked, wondering if her hands were on his butt or that was just something he was imagining.

"Thank you for being my friend..." she said softly, hugging him tighter. "I really appreciate it."

Ranma blinked even as he wrapped his arms around her, hugging her back. "Hey... You're my friend too." He said, smiling at her.

Grave smiled brightly. "I love hearing that..." she told him honestly.

Ranma chuckled slightly before noticing that a lot of people were looking at them. "uhh... Grave... Maybe we should leave now?"

Looking around, Grave nodded her head in agreement. "Yeah... it's getting too crowded anyway..." she said, verbally pointing out the crowd they were getting.

Ranma nodded as they seperated from their hug and quickly slipped away. He didn't mind the hug, he just hated the way people were looking at them.

(---)

Stryyp had watched the two chase each other and was quite honestly surprised with what he had seen. Honestly, he had been surprised to see them, both, acting like a couple of teenagers having fun, which, they were, but it was surprising to see someone who was supposed to be a killer be so carefree. "Maybe... It's not as bad as they thought?" He wondered to himself aloud. Hopefully she wouldn't react to horribly with Brianna and Britanny around.

Following them silently as they moved down the street, he watched, and wondered.

Rubbing his head as he felt a rock hit it, he glanced around him, then upwards. Was someone trying to get his attention or was it from a passing car? He shrugged it off and followed the pair.

High above where the Kryn had been standing, Xian Pu cursed herself silently as she backed away from the edge. If that tiger-like man had been more battle-savvy, she would've been in trouble, especially considering that the building, while tall to the Amazon, was only four stories high, short for the city that she was in.

Next to her, her great-grandmother shook her head but ignored the mistake. They weren't there for war, merely scouting and searching, but what she had seen... 'So that's it, is it?' She didn't know what to think of this. It had been over fifty years since her tribe had dealt with a Lycanthrope in any measure of the word. That one had been crazy with bloodlust, this one though... 'What to do?' It was possible that the girl was a Musk child, but she doubted that. She narrowed her eyes, with that tiger-looking man and that possible Lycanthrope... No, they weren't Musk, she was sure of it. Even the Dragon-spawn Leaders of the Musk looked vaguely human, barring the eyes and ears. "Come, Xian Pu." She said as they raced off, keeping their new targets in sight.

"You think that maybe Tiger-man knows where that redhead is?" Xian Pu asked as they ran.

"Maybe. I'm more interested in that girl." Ku Lon said and motioned towards Grave Digger.

"Why?"

"Were you not paying attention, child?" Ku Lon said harshly, causing the girl to flinch slightly. "She was able to levetate and fly for short moments."

"Maybe she good with Ki control?"

Ku Lon thought about that and nodded. "Possibly." It was, really. But the thought of someone so young having such Ki mastery was beyond anything she had heard of. Being a master of martial arts and incredibly skilled, sure, but having that level of Ki control was beyond what most masters were capable of. Heck, only the Musk royalty had any sort of abilities like that, that she knew of anyway, and they had the advantage of having dragon blood and ki flowing through their bodies. "But, it's more likely magic. Either way, I would like to know what it is."

"Yes, Great-grandmother." Xian Pu said as she followed, sighing slightly. This trip was seeming to be more and more of a disappointment to her. She hadn't had a good fight in a while. It was annoying.

(----)

Awhile later, Grave and Ranma finally came to the front gate of Ranma's house. Grave was slightly put off though. It meant that their fun was coming to an end. Oh well, she could get caught up on some reading. Who knew Nodoka had all those interesting books on hand?

It wasn't like she had a computer after all. Though, if Grave could get some money, she'd quickly change that.

Computers were a wondrous source of information. Books, news, a way to talk to people across the world... not to mention pornography.

Bringing her hand to her chin, Grave thought about that for a moment. Perhaps a computer might be an interesting tool to help Ranma open up to her a little more. She could get him stated slowly, showing him martial arts techniques that had been posted online...

...And then possibly start to look up to see if she could find these same exercises performed in the nude, preferably with naked women.

Hey! It was the internet! The internet had everything!

Ranma looked at her as she started giggling to herself wildly. "Uhh... You okay?"

Blinking her eyes as Ranma took her off her train of thought, Grave asked, "Wuh...?" She blinked her eyes again, quickly shaking her head to clear it. "Sorry abotu that. Was just thinking." A small smile came to her face. "We need to get you or at least your mother a computer."

"Why?" He wondered aloud. He hadn't ever had a computer, then again, when he had been on that training trip they were large, bulky, expensive and not good for traveling around for days on end. He hadn't seen any new computers in a long while. "I mean, I don't own a dojo yet, so I can't use a computer to keep track of anything." He did spend time learning a little at that all-boys school and computers could hold lots of information after all.

"Because you can check online," Grave told him. A smile came to her face as she explained, "There's all sorts of stuff online for information... you could see how people describe teaching classes, or even performing their martial arts." Her tail flicked behind her a bit. "It's a learning tool you could use in the meantime until you get your own dojo."

Ranma blinked and nodded. That sounded pretty good to him. Although... "Hey, aren't computers pretty expensive though?"

Grave held out her hand and waved it in a 'so-so' motion. "Somewhat. The really good ones cost major money." A small smile came to her face. "But I already have ideas of what to do to make money."

"You aren't going to try selling me or someone for money then steal that person back, are you?" Ranma said, sweat-dropping as he recalled what his father had done that one time. It was only once and they were starving for food!

Blinking her eyes, Grave shook her head. "Of course not!" She stared at Ranma with wide eyes. "What would even make you suggest such a horrid thing?"

Blinking a couple times, Ranma chuckled nervously and rubbed the back of his head. "eh heh heh... no real reason."

Her eyebrows narrowing, Grave looked Ranma in the eyes. "You're a terrible liar, you know that?"

"Whaa?" Ranma asked, slightly dumbfounded. Was she upset with him for some reason? What did he do wrong now?

The little lycanthropoid look into her eyes. "Ranma..." she said softly. "Please... you can tell me..."

"What?" He shrugged. "Look, it was a few years ago, we needed money, so pops had me work for this guy, got money for it... Then he came and got me later and took off. Always did wonder why that guy was chasing us though." He had always assumed that Genma had kidnapped him back or something.

Grave's tail swayed back and forth erratically. "I ever tell you how much I don't like your father?" She asked him seriously. Honestly the more she heard about that man, the more she wanted to kick him square in the behind.

"Not since you tried to start a fight at that tournament?" Well, actually, he was just guessing there.

"Are you two going to stand outside talking all day, or do you want some tea?" Nodoka asked from the door, smiling at them. Really, she liked the little neko-tama, but talking bad about her husband, no matter how true it might have been... Well, she was a dutiful wife after all.

"Oh, hello auntie Nodoka," Grave replied as she stopped in place and bowed to the matron of the Saotome home. "How was your day?"

Smiling, the redhead nodded to Grave. "Very good, actually. A little slow, but that's alright. Come on in, the tea will get cold."

Grave smiled. "Thank you, auntie. I like the tea you make." And she did. The Lycanthropoid wasn't normally one for tea, but she liked it when Nodoka made it.

"Sure mom." Ranma liked her tea. Was a lot better than most of the stuff you could buy at the stores.

Nodoka smiled and went back in. "Just a moment." Well, she had to carry out the rest of it to the table.

Watching the woman move back inside the house, the cheetah-pelted girl turned to Ranma. "Should we offer your mother some assistance?"

"Think she needs it?" Honestly, his mom was pretty dammed strong. Seeing Grave look at him funny, he chuckled nervously as he took off his shoes. "But, uh... Maybe she wants you to help her?"

The little semi-Werecheetah smiled. "A big strapping young boy should help his mother. I'm sure she would appreciate it." She held out her hands in a shooing motion. "Off with you. Help your mother."

"Uh... sure, sure." He muttered as he semi stumbled towards the kitchen.

Reaching up to take a series of cups off from a cupboard shelf, Nodoka blinked her eyes as she heard someone walk into the room. She turned to see her son there. "Ranma! What are you doing? I was going to bring the tea things out to you and Grave."

"Uh... Grave wanted me to help out here." He shrugged and moved over to pick up the tea set.

The woman managed to smile softly. "That was very thoughtful of the dear."

Ranma nodded, though he still felt she was a bit too forceful in that.

(---)

Placing down her empty tea-cup, Grave smiled. "Thank you for the tea and snacks, Nodoka." She licked her lips. "Those little cakes you made were delicious."

"Thank you." She smiled at Grave as she stood up.

Looking at the woman, the Lycanthropoid asked her, "can I help you with the dishes or anything?"

"Sure." Nodoka smiled as she picked up the dishes.

Smiling Grave happily picked up the tray for Nodoka and followed the older woman, intent on helping her clean the dishes and tea-things.

Outside, Stryyp looked the house over intently. 'So this is where Grave Digger was staying at?' He thought to himself. Well, he needed to get back to Britanny. Now if she was...

"Muffin!" His wife suddenly cried out. Turning, he barely had time to brace himself before she ran into, and over, him.

Stryyp let out a breath of air as he collided with the ground under an enthusiastic Werecheetah. "Ow..." Was all that was said as his wife fussed over him.

"Oops! Sorry muffin." Britanny apologized as she got up. "I was just so worried about you that I couldn't wait."

Chuckling, the tiger-stripped man nodded and sat up, rubbing his head from the slight pain he felt. "Well, I was going to come back and..." Trailing off, he sighed. "Britanny... Did you run at top speed to find me, leaving Genn and Brianna behind?"

"Well, not top speed..." She said a bit nervously as she chuckled.

"Britanny... How... Dare... You!?" Brianna gasped out as she ran in, Genn on her shoulder, panting and practically falling over from running so fast and carrying her friend.

"Sorry. But it's not my fault you're so slow." Both Stryyp and Genn sweat-dropped. Only Britanny could call running at those kinds of speeds slow.

Stryyp cleared his throat, catching the sisters' attention before they could start really fighting. "It seems that she's staying at that house there." He said, pointing across the street. He didn't even bother asking how his wife could find him in a city. He'd probably get an answer that had to do with the power of love, sensitivity of her nose and plain dumb luck.

"So, how should we do this? Drag her out and play "cat-pile-on-the-evil-clone"?" Britanny asked, causing Genn and Stryyp to sweat-drop, the amount of sweat-drops on their head increased as Brianna actually seemed to think it was actually a good idea.

Nodding her head, Brianna told her, "Sounds good to me!" She bit her lip as she smiled, her pupils dilating. "Can we sneak an explosion in that plan somewhere?"

"I have a better idea." Stryyp started as the other three looked at him curiously.

(---)

"You sure this will work?" Britanny whispered to Genn as they and Brianna stood off to the side and just out of sight while Stryyp knocked on the door.

"Nope." Genn replied, though she thought it would be better than them all attacking Grave Digger. They tried that back on Jade, and it sure didn't work. Besides, she needed to get close for her psychic powers to work properly.

"Shhh!" Brianna hushed them as the door opened. The others quieted down as they waited.

"Hello?" There was a silence, before a loud gasp. "Y...Y...Y...Y...You f-f-f-found meee..." A female voice exclaimed in a soft, trembling tone.

Stryyp blinked as he watched the small Werecheetah tremble and back up. "Grave Digger." He said softly, cautiously. He really didn't want to scare her.

"Don't... No... Won't..." Stryyp took a step back as Grave Digger glowed red, her eyes flared a similar color as energy surrounded her half-closed fist. "NO!"

The next thing that she knew was a furred hand gripping, hard, on her glowing wrist. A pair of angry, narrowed green eyes glared while a deep growl erupted from her throat. "Don't... Even... Think... About... It." Britanny managed to growl out.

Grave Digger's eyes widened, her aura spluttering out in shock. Sadly, that only lasted for a moment before her aura bloomed back, even stronger than before. "YOU!" She hissed, her hair actually floating up into the air.

"Don't try it!" Brianna yelled as she pulled out a hand blaster and aimed at Grave Digger.

"What the hell is going on here?!" Ranma yelled as he and Nodoka came out from aruond the corner. Nodoka frowned at the language, but didn't bother to rebuke his statement as she took stalk of the situation.

Britanny and Brianna look at the newcomers with a hint of malice in their eyes. "You two stay out of this" Brianna almost snarled, "She's not what you think she is!"

"She's not what? Someone who saved my life? Who's had my back for a less time than my Pop but with far better intentions? C'mon, what?!?!" Ranma himself growled out as he got into a his no-stance-stance, "I ain't lettin' her go without either a fight or an explanation. Preferably an explanation as Mom prob'bly wants to keep her house..."

All Genn could do was groan and mutter, "I knew this wouldn't go well, I just knew it..."

Stryyp sighed and squeezed Britanny's shoulder. "Dear, let her go."

"But..." She protested

"Dear..."

Britanny looked into her husband's eyes and groaned in defeat, "Oh...alright, muffin...but if she turns out to be bad news, you're sleepin' on the couch!"

"Right." Stryyp breathed out in relief as Britanny let go of Grave Digger, the new guy grabbing Grave and pulling her away from the others. The Werecheetah was trembling from the confrontation as she turned around and pressed herself against him.

"Perhaps, we could all adjourn to the dining room and enjoy a nice cup of tea and rice balls while we talk about what's going on?" Nodoka asked thoughtfully as she carefully kept her hands away from the family blade.

Ranma nodded as he pulled the trembling girl out of the room. "Sure, just give us a moment, mom." Nodoka nodded as she turned to the others.

"Grrr..." Brianna was still unconvinced. Seriously, it could easily be a trick to get them into a smaller area with their guard relaxed just moments before blowing them up!

Hey! It's what _she_ would've done!

Heck, she wasn't sure she would be able to wait for everyone to get into one place.

"C'mon, Brianna, a nice cup of tea, some sweets, it'll all be fine." Genn asked as she put her hand on Brianna's arm.

Stryyp squeezed Britanny's shoulder again. "Come on." He said softly, having her follow the red-haired woman.

(---)

Grave hugged Ranma tightly, trembling heavily. "Can't... Can't face them..." She whimpered, her arms squeezing him tightly out of sheer terror. "Don't... Don't ever want them to kill me!"

Ranma blinked in shock. "Kill you?!" He asked incredulously, his arms reaching around her back, squeezing back, trying to get her to calm down, but wasn't sure just how to do that.

Grave nodded, tears leaking out of her eyes as she buried her face against his chest. "I... I saw them... I saw Stryyp and I... I panicked!" Her eyes squeezed shut tightly as she hiccuped softly. "Why... Why can't... WHY?!" She bawled, her tears drenching his shirt.

Ranma wasn't sure just what to do as Grave Digger cried. He was actually glad that her tears didn't get through his shirt and trigger his curse, but he really wished he knew what he could do to make her stop crying.

(---)

"Will one of you please explain to me just what is going on now?" Nodoka said after she and her guests had sat down for a few moments.

Seeing her family turn to her, Brianna frowned slightly. "Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's your story to tell." Genn said.

Brianna sighed while leaning back and rubbing her eyes. "It's complicated, to be honest." She looked at Nodoka seriously. "Do you believe in magic? Curses?"

Nodoka blinked, after meeting Genma, his master and seeing the Neko-tama, how could she not?

"A couple of years ago, my two sisters were in the Middle East exploring an old cavern. During the exploration, they happened to come across a cursed chamber."

"So, what was this curse?"

"Extreme bad luck." Britanny replied, that was a time in her life that she could've done without. "It wasn't bad at first, but it got worse and worse." Honestly, mooning all those men hadn't been a highlight of her day.

"To make a long story short, my other sister, who isn't here, made up a gelatinous mix of hers and Britanny DNA. The curse fixated on it and well..." Brianna trailed off, seeing Nodoka blinking in confusion. "Are you okay?"

"So... Your sister used Jell-o made of blood?"

Genn quickly covered her mouth to hold back her giggling. Brianna strained a smile and nodded. "Yes, not that simple, but pretty close."

Nodoka frowned, mulling it over. Something was wrong here. What did... Her eyes widened as she looked at Brianna. "You... And Neko-tama-chan... You two... Were created from that, weren't you?"

Brianna blinked in surprise. "Close... You're sharp, aren't you?"

Nodoka just smiled and motioned for her to continue. Sighing, Brianna shook her head and grimaced.

"Do you mind, Bri?" Genn asked, causing the Lycanthropoid to look at her and nod in relief. Turning to Nodoka, Genn picked up the tale. "Both were created, but they shared one body at the time. What happened next was Brianna here was a little crazy and tried to kill her sisters."

Nodoka blinked and nodded. To be honest, she had heard of crazier reasons for trying to kill someone.

(---)

"ACHOO! DAMMIT!" A certain someone bellowed as he was tackled.

"Oooh! A man!"

"Hey! It's that hottie from before."

"It's my turn!"

Ryoga's eyes widened as he tried to escape the clutches of the women. "RAAAANMMMAAA! THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"

It wouldn't be so bad... But these women were UUUUUGLY!

Seriously, they killed normal animals and most men from just being within fifteen feet of them. (1)

(---)

"I see..." Nodoka said after Genn had finished explaining about that day. "I guess something happened if both of them are running around at the same time then?" To be honest, it did give her a reason why the Neko-tama had reacted so violently towards her husband. Really, Genma was a bit of an idiot, but that was no reason to blow him across town.

"Yeah..." Brianna drawled out slowly. "Let's just say that chance, a solar eclipse, fist to the head and some mages being slightly idiotic managed to cause mass destruction to a small town, land me in jail, Grave Digger went off on her own, and a few of my friends nearly got fried in some cross-fire." Granted, Gaja wasn't an idiot, but he _really_ should've thought that plan through a bit more.

Nodoka nodded, she wouldn't want to talk about something that got her arrested. "Very well, but what are your plans now?"

"To be honest, we mostly came here to see her." Stryyp explained before closing his eyes. "But... I'm not sure anymore." If she was unstable, it wouldn't be a good idea to let her run free.

(---)

Cologne frowned as she looked at the house.

"Great grandmother?"

"Come child. We have to prepare." Honestly, a mage, an alien, a good fighter and a Werecheetah in one area?! Well, two Werecheetahs, but one was a bit shrimpy and she was the mage in that house. And who knew what else was in there? Finding that redheaded female was getting less and less likely. Still... Cologne chuckled, this could be most interesting indeed.

Besides, she had been looking for an excuse to get out of the village for awhile.

Testing that boy could prove most... Entertaining.

* * *

Preview of Next Chapter:

"Huh?! Who's this old ghoul?!"

"Why are you calling someone as pretty as me a ghoul?"

"Ugh... Right... I think I'm gunna be sick."

(1) Check back to when Ryoga was mentioning about Hell being ugly. Hey! I got around to it eventually.

Anyway, here's some notes on this chapter...

Some of you may be disappointed in the non-fight scene that happened there.

Stryyp is of the mind set to talk first and fight last. Unless someone is trying to hurt his wife. That's a different story.

Ranma, typically in the manga, never really starts fights. He's willing to fight, but he typically doesn't start them. (Save for arguements.) Doesn't hurt that Britanny and Grave calm down around Stryyp and Ranma, respectively.

Don't expect the Amazons to stick around too long... Or maybe they will stick around. I'm not sure.

As for the reason why this chapter took so dammed long... Well... I have another project I'm working on in fanfiction. When it's ready, I'll post it.

As for the Amazons being nosey... Well, their first priority is going to be Ranma's female form. One thing that's a constant with fighters... They tend to seek each other out. (For the most part.) Anyway, they figure that since Ranma is a good fighter, eventually the redhead will show up and they can get her.


	30. 28

Grave's New Life

Chapter 28

Disclaimer: Wait! You mean that I don't own this? Boo. Okay, okay. Ranma is owned by Rumiko Takahashi-sama. Grave, Brianna, Britanny and Stryyp are owned by the High Lord Fred Perry. Everyone else belongs to whomever they belong to.

Okay, so I haven't written anything for Grave's New Life in a long, LONG time. Sorry everyone.

Special thanks goes out to Lawra, author of "No Need for Nerima" which can be found in my favorites. Thanks, Lawra, for your work as an awesome beta!

* * *

"Grave? Grave?" Muttering her name, Ranma shook the smaller Werecheetah-girl, causing her to mumble and cuddle against him. "...You're asleep?" Weird, he didn't think that she'd wear out that easily by falling asleep. Sighing, he slipped his hand under her legs, lifted her up and walked to his room. He honestly didn't know what to do about what was going on.

As he walked with her in his arms, she shifted in her sleep, twisting to the side slightly and nuzzling his chest with her face, mumbling something in her sleep. "Ooh boy…" Ranma muttered as he slipped into his room and put her on the bed, near the wall. As he put her down, he smiled as she rested her head on the pillow. She just looked so peaceful like that. Now he had to deal with the people downstairs. He sighed, wondering how the heck he was going to deal with people she was so obviously afraid of.

"This sucks." He muttered, wanting to go down and get those people out of the house, but not wanting to leave Grave alone. Besides, she wasn't letting go of his arm.

(--)

Nodoka frowned thoughtfully as she listened to the story she was being told. The story painted Neko-tama-chan as a violent evil person. Not the kind, if slightly excitable, girl that she had come to know. "Are you sure that she is as dangerous as you say she is?"

"Well, she was involved in a fight that destroyed a decent-sized settlement." Genn stated. Honestly, she couldn't feel any of the maliciousness that Grave Digger had before. Granted, she did try to attack them the instant that they had appeared, but that didn't feel the same as it had back in Seer's Hamlet. "Even if she's been calm like you've said she's been, she's still a danger to herself and others."

Nodoka shook her head and looked at her guests. "While she may have been dangerous in the past, or even to you, she isn't the same person that was involved in that fight. Besides, being involved in a fight that destroys a good portion of a town isn't anything new." She smiled slightly at their looks. "I've been around martial artists my whole life. I've seen them cause major damage to the surrounding area in their fights. Why shouldn't someone who can use magic cause destruction like that?"

"You're not surprised?" Brianna was in shock. This woman didn't look like she had gone through a lot of crazy things in her life. Heck, she looked like a normal Japanese housewife when all was said and done.

"Should I be?" The older redhead sighed and shook her head. "Look, I'm glad that I got to meet some people from Neko-tama-chan's past, but why are you making her so upset?"

"HEY!" Britanny yelled, standing up and frowning. She wasn't quite glaring, but to be asked a question like that? Where was the logic?

"I don't want fighting in my house. And it's rude to go to someone's house just to start a fight with the people living there."

Stryyp grabbed his wife's shoulder and squeezed. "You have to understand, we're concerned about her. The last time any of us saw her, she was trying to kill my wife and her sisters."

"No, I do understand that." Nodoka sighed and stood up. "I'm sorry, I'm going to go check on her. Please wait here for me."

Genn blinked and looked in the direction that Nodoka had gone. It wasn't the older-looking woman that caught her attention, but rather, the emotions from someone younger than her. Confusion, sadness, contentment, slight anger and some happiness was floating in the air, she wasn't sure where it was coming from, seeing as it was from deeper in the house, but the person behind the emotions…

She frowned slightly as she thought about the person behind the emotions. "Maybe she's right." Genn muttered to herself quietly, facing away, slightly, from Britanny so that the Werecheetah wouldn't hear what she had thought out loud. The last thing she needed was someone questioning her thoughts.

(--)

"Ranma?" Nodoka's voice drifted into the room, before she blinked at the sight and smiled. Her manly son was resting on his back with Neko-tama-chan laying on top of him, her arms wrapped around his body as he lay there, his one visible arm hanging loosely off the bed, fingers touching the floor. It was a such a perfect moment that Nodoka couldn't help herself, pulling out a camera from her obi she took several then took a few more just in case. It was all she could do not to pull out victory fans.

"Hmm?" Ranma turned and looked at her, blinking a few times to wake up completely. He was almost asleep from laying next to Grave. The girl wouldn't let go of his arm and it was starting to go numb, so he just decided that laying down next to her would be better than standing up all the time. 'When did she get on me?' He wondered as he looked at her peaceful face. At least she wasn't crying like she was before.

"Son, while I'm glad that you are helping her, we really need to talk about something." Nodoka said in a serious voice as she pulled up a chair and sat down near him.

Ranma could only blink at the seriousness in her voice.

(--)

"Brianna?" Genn looked at her friend curiously, worry in her eyes. "Are you alright?"

"What makes you think that I'm not?" Brianna shook her head and sighed. "Think about it… Grave Digger is somewhere in this house, probably plotting with that other guy and planting traps to kill me and everyone else off!"

Sweat-dropping as Brianna starting coming up with more and more crazy and ideas about what Grave Digger could be planning on doing, Genn coughed into her hand. "Um, Bri, she's asleep." The Rackshasa giggled as Brianna twitched and fell over.

Britanny sighed and squeezed her husband's hand. "What now?" Calming down and thinking about it had her realizing that perhaps Grave Digger had changed. She remembered the Grave she fought against before, that one hurt both Genn and her before she was defeated. Genn wasn't even truly get involved in that altercation. Maybe that guy was important to her, but Britanny was sure that Grave Digger wouldn't care about that if she truly wanted to kill them. 'So, what changed?' She thought to herself, sighing in exasperation. This situation wasn't as clear-cut as it should've been.

"So, that's it, huh?" Nodoka muttered as she thought about what her son told her. "Are you sure that she's not like what those people are claiming her to be?"

Ranma rolled his eyes at that. "Yes, mom, I'm sure. Grave ain't hurt anyone who didn't deserve it." Well, other than Genma, but in Ranma's opinion, the panda deserved everything he got, short of being killed. Regardless of the problems that Genma had caused him, Ranma didn't think he needed that.

Nodoka looked at Grave Digger, before reaching over and moving a loose strand of hair out of the way of her face. "Hard to believe that she's as dangerous as they say she is…"

"Mom!" Ranma hissed, calming down as Grave squirmed and muttered something. "Look, yeah, she might over-react to those people out there…" Then again, people might say that he over-reacted to anything feline. That wasn't true. If those people had understood the evils that those twisted creatures could inflict to a person, they'd understand. "But she's worried that they'll hurt her."

"Perhaps meeting them like this wasn't the best way." Nodoka murmured softly before taking on a thoughtful look. "What if we set up a meeting?"

"Mom?"

"Well, what if we set up a meeting between Grave Digger and those girls?"

Ranma blinked a few times. "Don't you mean "Neko-tama-chan", mom?"

"Well, if her name is Grave Digger, it's only polite to call her by her name, is it not?"

"Right, right, so, what do you mean?"

"Well, what if I went back to them and told them to show up in a couple of days and talk peacefully with Grave Digger?"

"But, they're out there right now, right? So, why not have them meet now?"

Nodoka was interrupted before she could respond. "I don't wanna see them." Grave muttered as she raised her head up and looked at Nodoka blearily. "If I never have to see them, I'll be happy." She sighed and hugged Ranma tighter. "All I wanted was my own life. When I was created along with Brianna, we were nothing more than a clone of Gina and Britanny. Nothing more…" She whispered softly as tears welled up in her eyes. "Maybe Brianna sees herself as something more, but all I know is that I'm just a mix of Britanny and Gina…"

"No you aren't!" Ranma protested, frowning as she looked at him. "Sure, you might look like that tall lady out there."

"Britanny." Grave interrupted him softly.

"Right, Britanny, but you aren't her. If you were her, wouldn't you be taller and look more like her?"

"But…"

"What? Didn't you and me travel all around Jade together? Didn't we see all those towns?" Ranma chuckled slightly. "Didn't you spray me with hot water the first time we met? I don't recall them going around and helping me get clothes, or fight off those bandits, or face down that grumpy old lady."

Grave looked at him, a warm feeling filling her chest, before she teared up and kissed him on the lips while purring softly. She honestly felt like she was real, not just a mix of Gina and Britanny. If she was or wasn't her own person, she wasn't sure, but Ranma was making her feel real.

Nodoka blinked in surprise, before raising the camera up to her face and taking a few snap-shots of the kiss. It was so nice that her son could make Grave-chan feel better about herself, but she really needed to have a word with the girl about public displays of affection. After Grave broke the kiss and the two caught their breath, she cleared her throat, smiling as the two blushed. "Grave, you should meet with them. Would you rather have them constantly worry about you and show up constantly?" Not to mention that there was the significant problem of her meeting with those people constantly might escalate into extreme violence.

Grave took a deep breath before untangling from Ranma and sitting up, before repositioning herself to the edge of the bed, next to him. "I… I wanted to kill them… Because all I knew was that I was Britanny and Gina, but not at the same time. How…" She sniffled. "All I wanted to do was kill them, how could they not want to kill me?" Really, they probably saw her as evil incarnate, not that she blamed them. She just wanted to be her own person. She just felt that she couldn't with Britanny and Gina running around.

"Is there any of them that you feel you can talk to?"

Grave thought about those she had seen. Not Britanny, they'd probably end up killing each other, same with Brianna. She didn't even want to think about Genn, that girl could break her mind with a thought. Wait, there was… "Was there a large man, with red fur and black stripes?"

"Why, yes, I believe that there is one with those ladies, why?"

Grave smiled and actually looked like she was starting to relax. "His name is Stryyp…"

"Stryyp? What kind of name is Stryyp?" Ranma asked, blinking as he thought that name. It was crazily stupid.

"What kind of name is Ranma?" Grave asked, narrowing her eyes. Sure, she liked Ranma, but she still had affections and feelings for the Kryn.

"Hey! I like my name!"

"And he probably likes his name, so quiet." Grave smirked at him as Ranma sweat-dropped and shut up. Turning to Nodoka, she took a breath to clear her thoughts. "I can talk to him." 'At least, I hope so.' She thought to herself. Hopefully Stryyp was still as a gentle soul as she remembered him being.

"How about right now then?" Nodoka stood up as Grave nodded. "I'll be right back…" She stopped at the doorway. "Is it alright if his wife is in the room?" Grave shook her head as she shivered. Stryyp had gotten married while she was away, that was something she wasn't sure of before. And in her mind, only Britanny could've gotten his hand in marriage. That might have been from her memories that she got from Britanny, but she knew just how far the Werecheetah would go to getting a man that she wanted. Nodoka nodded and walked out of the room.

Grave jumped slightly as she felt a hand squeeze her shoulder. "Huh?"

"Grave, you okay?"

She shook her head. "No!" She whimpered and slumped. "I'm scared! Okay?" She turned, tears in her eyes. "What if he wants me to die just like Britanny and Brianna do?! Then what?!" She pulled him into a hug and started crying again. "I… I don't wanna die… Please… Don't let him…"

Ranma was dumbfounded as she clung to him desperately. Were things really that bad between her and these people? He wasn't sure. She didn't really like talking about it.

(--)

"I'm sorry for taking so long." Nodoka said as she walked back into the room. It wasn't proper for a host to leave their guests like she did, but it was a rather important emergency. Not to mention the pictures. Those would be so cute when she had them developed.

"I understand." Stryyp said as he looked at their host. "Family must come first."

"Yes, speaking of which, Grave-chan wishes to speak with you." Stryyp blinked as he heard that. He had honestly expected Grave Digger to want them to leave and never show up again. To actually want to talk? Maybe there was hope for her yet.

"No way!" Britanny yelled as she shot to her feet and got in front of Stryyp protectively. "I won't let that monster see my husband alone!" There was no telling what that little creature wanted. That this woman was encouraging everything just made her blood slowly boil.

Nodoka sighed and looked at Genn and Brianna, both of which looked like they were agreeing with Britanny's thoughts on Grave-chan being a monster. She didn't see how they could call the sweet girl a monster. People changed, couldn't they understand that? "I see…" It was hard to get the girl to want to talk in the first place, if they weren't going to want to talk, then all she could do was send them away until they were willing to talk to her.

"Wait…" Stryyp stood up quickly and gripped Britanny's shoulder. Whispering, he leaned in close to Britanny's ear. "Let me talk to her, please? She may have moved on beyond the curse, like Brianna did."

Britanny twitched and sighed, her shoulders sagging. She knew her husband was right. "But…" She couldn't let him face someone who was unstable by himself. Plus the girl had magic… Okay, so maybe it was better if he was there and she wasn't. He did have those artifacts sealed into him after all. "Fine, but I want to be close, okay?"

"No way!" Brianna yelled out as she looked at the two as though they were crazy. "You seriously aren't going to go in there alone. I don't care if she wants to talk, she's always wanted to hurt Britanny and Gina, and if she hurt you, she'd get to all of us easily!" She still cared for Stryyp and if he got seriously hurt, she'd be upset, to put it midly. "Can we really trust her?"

Nodoka didn't think that Grave was so bad. Other than blowing up her husband, the girl was an absolute dream. "I believe you can." She said, drawing their attention to her. "If she was truly the monster that you've claimed her to be, don't you think she would've attacked while you were talking to me, or waiting for me to get back." She wasn't going to say that Grave had been crying. That would be embarrassing for the poor girl.

"Something's different about her, let Stryyp talk to her; maybe he can get through to her where we all failed." Genn said, slightly depressed about the fact that she had been part of the problem.

Brianna twitched as she saw the looks around the room. "Fine." She growled out, scowling. Why couldn't they just let her snipe the girl in the back of the head and get it over with? She was a danger, didn't they see that?

(--)

Grave looked up as she heard knocking at the door. "Ranma, please go stand against the wall." She whispered while pointing at the wall to her left. "Let me talk to him, please? Just stay there."

"Grave," Ranma rubbed her shoulder, "if he tries anything…" He trailed off, causing her to smile.

"Thanks." She whispered before turning to the door. "Come in." She took a deep breath as she saw Stryyp walk in. He was just as handsome as she remembered him, no! No! He was married now. She didn't need to hope that she could get with him. That would only cause problems for her in the future. Still, his tiger stripes, large muscles, green eyes, she still felt weak in the knees just from looking at… 'No! Stop that, Grave! It's just Britanny's memories talking, not you!' She thought to herself desperately. She didn't want to feel those feelings anymore.

Blinking as he looked her over, Stryyp had to admit that the girl in front of him didn't look like a murderous monster. He could see dried tear-tracks on her face, her eyes were blood-shot and the way she shook and trembled, either she was trying to hold back from laughing, crying or screaming. He wasn't sure about her being a murderous creature, considering that she looked like a small, scared, albeit cute, girl. Then again, his former priestess and best friend didn't seem too harmless and she had nearly gotten him, Britanny, his father-in-law and the Werewolves, Jetta and Thabian, killed. Not to mention what she had tried to do a few months ago at his wedding. Sighing, he noted the boy that had been with Grave against the wall, looking slightly bored, though Stryyp was picking up traces of tension outlined all over his body that even his slightly baggy clothing couldn't hide. Taking a deep breath, he stepped forward and sat down on the chair that was right in front of her.

It was another five minutes before anyone said or did anything. Stryyp didn't mind the quiet. He could be patient if he needed to be. Dealing with some of the crazy stunts his wife pulled over the years required him to be. Grave, on the other hand, was seriously trying to collect her thoughts. Part of her wanted to jump across the gap and hug Stryyp. Another part wanted to strip naked, get him naked and have lots of nookie. One part that realized her connection to Britanny wanted to try and kill him. Said part was blown to bits by the rest of her mind. But there was one part of her mind that finally got her to act. "How much do they hate me?"

"Excuse me?" What had brought that up? Stryyp was sure that wasn't generally the first thing said between people when they met.

"Britanny and Brianna." The blue-eyed cat-girl clarified and sighed. "I can just imagine it… They probably didn't want you talking to me, did they?"

"Well, no, but that doesn't mean…"

"I figured." Grave interrupted as she sighed. "What about you? I've tried to kill her… Both of them actually. Do you hate me too?"

Stryyp scratched his head and sighed as he thought about what she said. If he was honest with himself, he was certain that Brianna was upset, okay, upset was too light a word, she flat-out wanted Grave Digger dead. "Do you want me to hate you?"

Grave looked up, confused. Why would he ask that? "No! Why would I?" It might have only been fragments of Britanny's memories, but she still thought highly of Stryyp. If he hated her... She trailed off that line of thought, not wanting to continue it.

Considering his next words carefully, the Kryn looked her in the eyes as he leaned forward a bit. "Listen, I know that you tried to hurt them. Didn't Brianna try to as well?"

"That was me…" Grave interrupted him again. She knew she was being rude, but she had to set the record straight. "I was in charge at first, then their father tried to kill me and I hid. If Sheila didn't hit Brianna on the head, I wouldn't have gotten out like I did."

"Did you ever think that maybe you couldn't control what happened?"

Grave twitched, growled before standing up and glaring. "I was in control the whole time! I just… I just wanted my own life! Is that so wrong?! Huh?!" She looked up at the door as it was kicked in, tears leaking from her eyes. "Oh, and look! The princess bursts in to try and protect her man when he's probably in a better position to protect himself than she could ever hope to be." She turned her glare to Brianna, who was right behind Britanny, a gun of some sort in her hands preparing to fire.

"Don't you dare hurt…" Britanny blinked as that boy suddenly appeared between her and Stryyp, who had just gotten up and turned to the side, just in case something went wrong. "Get out of the way kid. That's my husband."

"And Grave's my friend, you ain't getting anywhere near her."

"You couldn't stop me if I wanted to get to her."

"ENOUGH!" Stryyp yelled, causing everyone to stop and look at him wide-eyed; the two cheetah-girls and Brianna because they knew Stryyp to keep calm under most circumstances, and Ranma because, honestly, something about the man just demanded that he listened to the guy. He wasn't sure, but it was possible that the fact his muscles were glowing slightly as he looked the room over. "Now that we're all calm, I suggest we move to the living room." There would be more space and since he had gotten Grave Digger speaking, maybe she'd get everything off of her chest. Seeing everyone nod, he sighed and his arms stopped glowing. He just hoped that things wouldn't get out of control.

(--)

It took over twenty minutes to get everyone into the living room. Mostly because Britanny and Brianna didn't trust Grave and Grave didn't want to take her eyes off of the taller women. Stryyp didn't want to leave the women alone and Ranma and Britanny had a glaring match during those minutes. It finally ended when Ranma opened the window, grabbed Grave Digger and jumped outside, saying that he'd meet the Diggers inside.

Nodoka sighed as she looked at Britanny disapprovingly. She would've said something, but Stryyp had promised to pay for the repairs for the door and frame-work. She grabbed Genn and ushered the Rackshasa into the kitchen with her. She would've asked that Brianna go with her, but Grave had said she wanted to speak with Brianna.

Genn sighed as she stood by the door-frame of the kitchen. She wanted to help Brianna and Grave both. Honestly, she thought it was her fault that the fight broke out in Seer's Hamlet in the first place.

"A yen for your thoughts?" Nodoka asked as she stood on the other side of the doorframe, looking at the horned girl. She wondered where those horns came from, but shook it off. She had seen weirder things in her life. Genn didn't even rate in the top five. Her husband's old master on the other hand, _he_ was weird.

"I should be out there. Brianna's my best friend."

"I understand… Grave-chan's been such a dear to have around the house, I want to be out there to give her help."

"Why aren't you?"

"She needs to deal with this herself… And, even if he doesn't know it, my son is important to her." She smiled as pride swelled up in her. To see her manly son help Grave-chan out in her time of need… She couldn't be prouder of him.

Genn blinked at the smiling woman, feeling the simple happiness coming off of her, before smiling herself. Such happiness was actually contagious; she was hoping that it wasn't misplaced.

In the living room, Grave looked across the table at Britanny, then to Stryyp, before looking at Brianna, all three were looking at her, though Britanny was occasionally looking at Ranma and narrowing her eyes. She still looked like crap, not having time to clean her face up to get rid of the tear-tracks on her face.

"Grave…" Stryyp started, causing her to look at him. "You said you wanted your own life…"

"Why? Is that wrong?"

"Maybe for you, it should be." Brianna muttered, causing Grave to turn and glare at her. She wasn't the only one as Ranma turned to her and frowned. Maybe he was angry at them, but he wasn't going to jump across the table and start a fight unless one of them tried something first.

"Why?" Seeing Brianna hesitate, Grave smirked slightly. "That's right, anything you say about me is probably something about you, isn't it?!"

"I'm nothing like you! I don't try to hurt my friends!"

"Right, you just hurt them by accident with faulty technology."

"At least I wasn't trying to kill them!"

Grave crossed her arms under her breasts and frowned. "Could've fooled me, sis!" She spat out the last word as though it was a curse.

"Enough!" Stryyp once again raised his voice making everyone jump. "We won't get anywhere with constant bickering, someone needs to let down their guard and ego so we can talk this out!" He was starting to get a major headache and it wasn't going away anytime soon.

"And if we can't?" Ranma wondered aloud.

"Then we should coolly part ways until we feel we can talk in a civil manner, otherwise this will go nowhere and degenerate into a brawl, which is the last thing we need."

Grave sighed and slumped back. "Sorry…" She muttered while still glaring at Brianna. "So, what? I'm supposed to just join with you again, become one and disappear forever?" Beside her, Ranma blinked, wondering what the heck she was talking about. "Sorry, but that's not happening, not anymore. I might be you, Brianna, but I'm not coming back, ever!"

"So, what? You just wanna live as a part of yourself forever?"

"As long as I can live, then yes!" Couldn't they understand it? The need she had to live, to expand and grow? Brianna should know what she was thinking, but apparently that clone girl couldn't get it out of her head that she was better off without Grave around. "Can't you two just leave me alone?!" She trembled, tears welling up in her eyes, making her mentally curse. She didn't want to cry in front of these three. She didn't want to show any weakness off. "Just let me live in peace… I don't care about you guys anymore, just leave me alone."

Brianna bit back any comment she was going to make as the words started to percolate. "What?" Wasn't that the essence of Grave's existence? Didn't she just want to kill off Britanny and Gina and take their place? She certainly had the power now, even if she didn't know how to use it completely.

"Is it so hard to believe that I don't want to kill you anymore?" Grave said as all heat and emotion leaving her voice as she slumped against the couch. "Just… Just leave me alone."

Britanny and Brianna blinked and looked at each other, before turning back to the girl that they had, up until a few moments ago, had been afraid of. Was it really what she wanted?

(--)

Standing outside, Stryyp nodded to Nodoka as Brianna, Britanny and Genn stood behind him. "I guess this is goodbye." Turning to Grave, who was standing behind Nodoka, Ranma's arm wrapped around her shoulders, he smiled lightly to her. "Grave, I know that you wanted us to leave you alone. But if you really are serious about not wanting to hurt Britanny, Brianna or Gina, you can call anytime." Grave shook her head at that.

"I'll keep it in mind, but I don't think I'll be calling you anytime in the future…" Grave paused for a moment before leaping out from behind Nodoka and hugging Stryyp. "But thanks for the offer."

"HEY!" Britanny cried indignantly and reached forward to try and get Grave off of her husband. She blinked as she felt a hand squeeze her wrist. Turning, she blinked as Genn shook her head. "But…" She turned back just as Grave let go of Stryyp.

"Tell… Tell your parents that they don't have to worry about me. I won't bother you guys anymore." Grave muttered as she walked back to the house.

Stryyp frowned but nodded, he had hoped that she would at least want to have a connection to her family. He wouldn't force it though.

"Hey, Grave…" Brianna called out, causing the shorter Werecheetah to stop and turn to her. "…Sorry… About thinking you haven't changed."

Grave blinked, before nodding and slipping away from the door, into the house and out of sight.

(--)

"Great grandmother?"

"Soon, dear, very soon. We'll wait till we can get him alone."

(--)

"Will you be okay?" Ranma asked Grave as she walked past him.

"I don't know, I just don't know…"

* * *

Preview of next chapter:

"Hey! Ranma here, gotta say that could've gone better."  
"Hey! Are you saying that I didn't do it right?"

"Nah, it could've been worse too."

* * *

Okay, sorry I didn't get the chapter out sooner. Or get any Amazons into the chapter more than I did.

Alright, someone asked why Ranma isn't reacting to Grave and the others with the fact that they look cat-like. My response is, read the comics. Leprechauns, which are TERRIFIED of cats, didn't even react to Britanny until she went into full cheetah form. Then they freaked out. So, IMO, Werecats in hybrid form (and the Kryn) don't look cat-like enough to induce the intense fear that the Neko-Ken unleashes.

And, there you go.


	31. Final

Grave s New Lifer

Chapter 29

Disclaimer: I own nothing. Wish I did though. Ah well.

Special thanks to Lawra and Red Priest for their help and inspiration.

_______________________________________________________________________

Grave sat on the porch, watching Ranma work out, well, her mind was only partly there, instead she was thinking back on the past few days, trying to make sense of it all. The tip of her tail twitched lazily to the side as she thought about her life. What was she going to do now? Cutting off her connections to her old life wasn't something that she had ever imagined being able to do. Honestly, she felt as though a giant weight had been removed from her body. Maybe it was a cliche thought, brought up from memories from various books read and video games played in the past, but she really couldn't explain how she felt any better than that.

Still, that had been over a week ago, and she really didn't have a lot to do but think. Honestly, with all this time and nothing happening, she understood Britanny just a little bit better. Thinking sucked. She smirked as she saw Ranma finally come to a stop and relax. 'This'll' be fun.' She thought to herself. Not to mention it would give her something to do.

Stopping as he came down from his last kata, Ranma stretched and turned around. That had been a good workout. Nothing too serious like he was used to while living on the road, but it was enough to get his blood flowing and sweat just a bit. His eyes widened as something collided with his chest and the next thing he knew, he was on the ground on his back, looking into the face of his favorite blue-eyed girl. "Hi, Grave, Um, Why'd you tackle me?"

Smirking slightly, she tilted her head to the side as she looked him over. After a few moments, she leaned in and gave him a quick peck on the lips before sitting up and grinning cutely. "I wanna go for a walk. Want to come with?" Really, she was bored and things were always more fun when she had someone to be with.

"Sure." He smiled at her. "Um... Wanna get off?" He could easily push her off, but he usually only pushed people off of him that annoyed him.

"Oh, sorry." She giggled and stood up, grabbing his hand to pull him up as well. Shall we go?

(---)

Talking about nothing and everything wasn't too bad, Ranma decided. Taking in the odd sight here and there, seeing those flying ships over in the north was interesting, but they really didn t care to go over there. Both of them knew better than to go mess with things that didn't concern them directly. Ranma through his interactions with Genma and Grave just didn't want to deal with any new problems.

"Hey! Is that..?" Grave suddenly called out, looking across the open playground, before her eyes lit up in delight as she rushed away from Ranma. "It is!" She giggled as she rushed up to the seats at the far end. "A swing!" She giggled as she looked the swing set over. It wasn't the biggest one in the world, but it was bigger than most of the swings found in school yards. Six swings, half of them for small children to be strapped into, the other three were made with hard seats that were quite solid, instead of being made of softer leather and had been hung so that a short, medium, and tall person could swing freely. Jumping on the middle one, she grinned as Ranma caught up to her. "Come on! Give me a push!"

Ranma smiled as he grabbed the chains, his hands wrapped around them just above hers, as he pulled back on the swing to give her a big push.

He chuckled as she started giggling. It was nice to see her so happy, rather than silent and thinking too much. Push me higher! She giggled at him as she swung back, causing him to grab her seat, pull back and push harder. "WHEE!"

Chuckling and letting Grave swing herself, he jumped on the swing next to her, pumping back and forth before getting some momentum going, his height quickly matching hers. He chuckled as he continued on, this was rather fun.

"Well, this is interesting, I wouldn't imagine that such a fighter would be doing something as simple as playing on a children's playground." An older voice spoke up, causing the two to stop quickly and look at a nearby tree, one without many leaves on it, seeing some sort of short old troll-like thing on it and a purple-haired girl that Ranma knew all too well.

"Shampoo!" He hissed softly, memories of when she was chasing him and Genma all throughout China coming back to him in force. He had hoped that he had seen the last of her when his old man used that scroll to get him out of China.

"How you know who Shampoo is?" The purple haired Amazon demanded, frowning. No, she was certain that she hadn't ever seen that boy or the cat-girl next to him in her life, at least until she showed up in Japan with her great-grandmother.

"Uh, no reason, none at all!" Ranma chuckled nervously. He had honestly forgotten that the Amazon didn t know of his curse. He still didn t want, nor need, to deal with her though. His nervousness increased as he saw the short thing by Shampoo narrow its eyes at him.

"Hmm... Interesting," Cologne muttered to herself as she looked the boy over. She smirked internally as he tried to hide his nervousness around her and Shampoo, but failed. After all, who wouldn't be nervous with two very pretty, if she did say so herself, women after him.

"What do you two want?" Ranma asked, shaking off his nervousness at seeing that crazy Amazon again. Couldn't she just accept that he was better than her and leave it at that? Well, he really didn't mind that she wanted to fight him again, but to want to kill him over knocking her off that log? What the hell was she thinking? Honestly, the contest was for food, not life and death.

"What we want," Cologne started, eying Ranma curiously, "Is many aspects within one goal." She hopped on her stick to get closer to Ranma. "We are on a training trip, seeking to improve my granddaughter's skill through fighting opponents. We are hoping to find a strong male and... A certain woman while we're here."

Well, he could respect that, training to get stronger. But he knew just who the woman was that they were looking for. He just hoped that there was no rain coming. The last thing he needed was to get wet. "Really? Why are you looking for that woman?"

Cologne nodded her head to that question for a moment. "First you must understand we are an old people that believe in and celebrate our traditions and history. This redheaded child has become part of it and we must fulfill it. We are most certain she came to Japan, hence why we have chosen this land for our training journey."

"Yeah, I can understand that." Ranma nodded, he knew to care for tradition well enough. "But why come to Japan? Don't you think she could have gone to Taiwan or Korea instead?"

"No, I recognize the Japanese," Cologne replied as she looked Ranma over with whimsy, grinning. "Like you, she chose to keep her hair in a ponytail. She also had blue eyes, like you. AND..." she grinned. "She was speaking Japanese in China."

Well, shit, he really didn't think that she knew what to look for. "Well, fine, but I don't have a sister, if that's what you're thinking."

Cologne laughed. "Oh no, you misunderstand. I was implying how all you Japanese look alike," she said, teasing the young man. "Although..." she allowed. "I can tell you're different from most."

Grave rolled her eyes and muttered how, to her, most people from the Orient looked roughly the same.

"Well, yeah. I guess I'm different than most. Then again, I ain't ever seen someone so..." He trailed off, trying to describe the way that the old ghoul looked.

And, honestly, he didn't have any way of describing her... The little... Creature in front of him looked like a shrunken gargoyle that he had seen when he was a little kid in front of that haunted house.

Fortunately for Ranma, Cologne cut him off before he could stick his foot in his mouth. "I am curious," she said suddenly. "You are a martial artist, no?"

"Well, yeah. I ve been training as long as I can remember."

Grave bit her bottom lip as she looked at the Amazons, something was up, she could literally taste excitement in the air.

Seeing that her great-granddaughter s interest was piqued, Cologne smiled in amusement. "Young man, would you be kind enough to do us a favor?" She asked him with a voice that conveyed complete innocence.

"Depends... You aren't going to tie me to a tree, dump paint on me while dancing some weird American dance for the hope that you'll get stronger, will you?" Seeing everyone stare at him stupidly, he shrugged. "My old man had weird ideas for teaching."

Shaking her head, Cologne replied, "No, no... Nothing like that." She smiled. "I want my great-granddaughter Shampoo to get experience fighting various martial artists. She's won a good deal of fights so far but I've yet to really see her challenged. Would you be interested in having a match with her?"

"Depends... She ain't going to try and chase me down and kill me if I beat her, will she?" Ranma, contrary to what some people would have thought about him, did, in fact, learn from past mistakes. The last thing he needed was someone trying to kill him in both forms after beating her.

Cologne raised an eyebrow. How the heck did he know about Amazon Law? "Oh no, no... That's only for female warriors. Can't have any rival nations surpassing us in that regard, you understand..."

"Riiiight..." Ranma drawled out and shook his head. "Well, if she won't try and hunt me down..."

Grave looked at him sharply. "You aren't serious, are you?" Something about all this was bothering her, she just couldn't figure out what it was just yet.

"Why shouldn't Fighter be serious?" Shampoo asked as she slinked up to get closer to Ranma. "Male consider self, fighter, yes? He want get to sample Shampoo's skills, yesss?" She practically purred as her eyes gazed over the pigtailed youth.

Ranma sweat-dropped and stepped back a few steps. "Yeah..." He shook his head and took a stance. "Ready?"

Grave stepped back and frowned slightly. "What is your reason for being here?"

"Like I said, we re trying to find a certain female fighter that visited our village and I wouldn't mind having my great-granddaughter fight a few strong opponents. Oh sure, they were going to kill the redheaded girl for what she did to Shampoo, dishonor such as that wasn't to be taken lightly. And finding a few strong male prospects for Shampoo and the rest of the Amazons wouldn't be too bad either. Still, it looked like this one wasn t going to be worth much, if all he could do was dodge No, wait, Cologne's eyes widened slightly as she gave the fight a second look. The male wasn't fighting back; he was just gauging Shampoo's abilities before fighting back. She had to hold back a cackle. Such a delight! The boy was actually a good fighter. Better than she would have thought, based on what she had seen before. The fact that he was almost able to trick her was something worth noticing in her opinion.

Grave turned back to the fight and sighed as she saw Ranma grow tired of dodging that Amazon, not that she thought he was getting tired, but he was growing bored, as evidenced with the kick to the jaw he gave her, knocking her into the air and into a tree. That had to hurt. Grave winced as the Amazon was practically bent in half, her head sticking into the tree for a few seconds, before falling to the ground.

"Indeed." Cologne nodded, though she knew her grand-daughter was quite durable, the youth did hit her rather hard. "It's a good thing that she can handle such pain then, isn't it?"

Grave sweat-dropped as Shampoo got back up almost right away. "Yeah..." She said slowly as she turned from the purple-haired girl to the old prune in front of her. "You aren't going to let her keep this up are you?" It was obvious to her who was the better fighter. Heck, she could just knock out that girl with a quick spell, no need to let her keep fighting and risk hurting herself.

Honestly, she was just getting sick of all the fighting that was going on. She just wanted to spend time with Ranma without dealing with the idiots that wanted to mess with her or Ranma. 'Of course, with men like Ranma's dad...' Her thoughts trailed off as Cologne started chuckling. "What?"

"Oh, you are quite right, girl. There really is no way that my grand-daughter can win like this." It was slightly disappointing that Shampoo was taken out so easily, but that was probably for the better.

"So, that's all that you wanted then, right?"

Cologne chuckled in a way that caused Grave to step towards Ranma nervously. "Oh, yes and no... I'm just glad that he proved to be a capable fighter. You see, girl, when an outsider male defeats an Amazon female, she becomes his wife by law."

"HEY! You said that..."

"My grand-daughter would not hunt you down and kill you. I never said anything about not marrying you." Cologne smirked as Ranma paled noticably.

"What the hell?!" Grave growled, tensing as she glared at the little gnome in front of her. "You didn't say anything about that!"

"You never asked." The old woman replied cooly as Grave started to glow with arcane energies. "So this is the mage that I felt." Cologne commented to herself as she narrowed her eyes. Against most people, this would be worrisome. Then again, a 300-year-old Amazon with 3,000 years of martial and magical techniques at her beck and call wasn't most people. "Girl, you'll find that I'm more than a match for most mages that exist." It was a bit of a bluff on her part, if she was perfectly honest. If the girl was anywhere near a master mage level of skill and power, she'd be hard-pressed to do anything to her.

Growling, the Lycan-girl held up a hand that crackled with lightning. "I'm willing to take my chances." She blinked as Ranma squeezed her shoulder. "What?"

"Grave... Don't."

"See? The boy has more sense than you do."

"But, Ranma, she..."

"Let me take care of her." He grinned at her. He wasn't one to turn down a challenge. She couldn't possibly be better than that Dwarf he fought on Jade.

Grave nodded, but narrowed her eyes at the Amazon, who was chuckling to herself. "Fine..." She didn't trust the Amazon in front of her though.

"Foolish child. You think you can take on an Amazon Matriarch?" Granted, she wasn't much to look at, being only two feet tall, but there was no way a young pup like him could beat her.

"Yeah, I do." Ranma grinned as he jumped at her. He was certain that this wouldn't take too long.

Chuckling, the woman lept up with him, striking out with the tip of her staff at his legs, hoping to take him out by the time they hit the ground again. A fighter that couldn't walk was one that couldn't fight very well.

Seemingly defying all laws of physics, the boy managed to twist around her weapon to punch at her. Smirking, she grabbed his hand, pulled him down, before slamming his head with her staff, knocking him out of the air and into a tree. "Is that all?"

"Ha! Not on your life!" He yelled as he sprang to his feet. Sure, that blow hurt a bit, but he had taken worse from his old man before.

Cologne smirked as the boy jumped at her again. Oh, he had no chance, but at least he was amusing with how he could try to beat her. Most people would think twice before trying that again. Her eyes widened slightly as he managed to seemingly defy physics and flip around her staff thrust before lashing out with a kick at her face.

Grave frowned as she watched the fight progress, Ranma did hit the old creature with that kick, but that left him open just long enough for her to grab his foot and throw him back to the ground. He was good, she wasn't doubting that, but that old crone was reminding her too much of G'nolga for her tastes. Just a lot shorter and uglier, if such a thing was possible.

Ranma shook his head and grimaced. The way things were going, he was going to lose and fast. "How about you give up, sonny boy?" The old crone smirked, the scuff mark on her face and clothes doing nothing to detract from the fact she was winning the fight.

"Heh, I was about to ask you the same thing, you old hag." Ranma chuckled as he shifted stances, crouching lower towards the ground.

Cologne frowned, something about that stance had her on edge. When she felt his Ki level start to spike, she narrowed her eyes. 'What is he doing?' She asked herself, slipping into a more serious combat stance as she ran her mind over every piece of lore she could think of at that moment to figure out what he was trying to accomplish.

She never got a chance to find out as her eyes widened as she felt a very strong Ki surge heading their way. "What the..?" She started to say, before the area in front of her perspective son-in-law was blown up by a Ki blast. She was no stranger to the stuff, having seen them from the Musk before, but she hadn't expected anyone outside of the Jusenkyo valley could use them.

"RAAAAANNNNMMMMAA!" An irritating voice screamed as a large body landed on the ground, fist first, causing the ground and trees to get pushed up and out. Both Cologne and Ranma were tossed into the fallen trees, mostly so that they could avoid being seriously hurt by the destroyed ground.

"Ryoga?!" Ranma's eyes widened. "How'd you get back here so fast?!"

"Anything to kill yooMPH!" Ryoga cried out as he got slammed with an invisible force, sending him back and through a tree. "Who dares?!"

"Leave him alone!" Grave yelled as she glared at the large cursed boy.

"Oh, you..." Ryoga said, and for the first time, Ranma actually noticed that his voice sounded like two people. "You remind me too much of another Werecheetah. She wasn't anything to worry about when Benji and I fought her though, you aren't much to worry about either."

"Ryoga, what the hell are you talking about?!" Ranma demanded, his eyes seemingly slitting as he got out of the tree that he had crashed into after Ryoga had smashed the ground.

"Ryoga? Oh you mean who I used to be." The cursed boy chuckled darkly before firing several Ki blasts at both Grave and Ranma, causing them both to jump out of the way to avoid being hit. "Call me... Peachbody Hibiki!"

"As amusing as this is..."

"Stay out of this, old woman!" Peachbody yelled and quickly brought his left hand up and over his shoulder, a whip of Ki flinging towards Cologne, who easily dodged it, Shampoo, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky, being disoriented from the initial attack of the fusion of Ryoga and Peachbody, took the full force of the attack. If she wasn't trained in using her Ki, she'd be dead, as it was, the cut went deep into her, from her left shoulder diagnally down to her hip, causing her eyes to widen as she screamed loudly.

"Shampoo!" Colgone wasn't one to get angry, at least not very often, but seeing her great-grand-daughter get hurt from an attack that she didn't have any real chance of avoiding really got to her.

Turning, her eyes narrowed as she saw the large Ki user and the one she was fighting before face off, except that the boy, Ranma, she thought it was, was doing better against the larger fighter than she had seen him do the last time. 'Ask questions later, kill the oaf now.' She thought. She knew she shouldn't let her emotions get to her, she knew what happened to people who were ruled by their emotions, she also knew that Shampoo was the last in her line, if she was dead, then her family's future was forfiet.

"Lightning!" Grave growled, sending several powerful bolts arching across the field, hitting Peachbody in the chest and causing him to crash into another tree.

"You're getting annoying, girl... Aegis Burst!" Peachbody cupped his hands together before lashing forward, a far stronger Ki blast flying forward at Grave at tremendous speeds.

Eyes widening as she saw her impending death heading her way, Grave could actually see her life flash before her eyes; fighting with Gina, fighting with Brianna, meeting Ranma, traveling with him, getting captured, returning to Earth, having fun with Ranma, smiling and laughing while he was nearby.

"GRAVE!" Ranma yelled as she was consumed by a large explosion. His eyes teared up as he turned towards the laughing Peachbody. "You... You will PAY for that!"

"Oh, I'm sorry, did you care for her? She really shouldn't have gotten in our way." Peachbody chuckled as he blocked an attack from the enraged pigtailed martial artist. "URGH!" His eyes widened as the arm he used to block suddenly had several slash marks across the forearm. "How did ARRRGH!" He screamed as the back of his knee was hit hard enough to cause him to fall to his knees. "Who?"

"You should think twice before attacking a Chinese Amazon, fool." Cologne said gravely as Peachbody turned his attention from Ranma to her, leaving him open to the kick to the head that not only sent him tumbling end over end, but also cut up the left side of his face.

Growling as he sat up from that attack, his face bleeding and dirty, Peachbody glared daggers at the two that were charging him. "I was going to toy with you for a bit, but now you made me ANGRY!" He yelled, a powerful aura suddenly exploding around him, causing the trees and ground to get pushed away from him. "Now you DIE!" He yelled, crossing his arms in an "X" pattern and quickly pulling them down, an X-shaped Ki blast heading towards the two of them, causing them to jump to the side to avoid it. The trees and the random Budda statue behind them weren't as lucky as they fell into pieces.

Peachbody grimaced and grunted as he grabbed an incoming kick, his hand getting lightly slashed in the process. "I never would have guessed that you were as bad as he said you were."

"What?" Ranma asked, growling as Peachbody held him at arm's length. And considering how long those arms were, he was nearly eight feet off the ground, not that he couldn't handle such a fall, it was still slightly discerning.

Peachbody smirked at him. "Oh, you remember, a few days ago when you defeated the fool who kept challenging you?"

"Yeah, it was you." Ranma grimaced as he felt Peachbody squeeze his hand tighter, a few bones cracking in the process.

Peachbody chuckled slightly before throwing Ranma at Cologne, who was forced to jump back and break the spiral motion that she was attempting. "Oh, you would be right... If Ryoga and I didn't make a little... Agreement."

Cologne's eyes widened. "Wait... You were someone who fell into the forbidden pool?!" NOW it made some sense. She had never seen anyone who had fallen in, but all accounts of people who did always went insane.

"Yes..." Peachbody chuckled even more as his aura bloomed into existence once more. "I never would have guessed that Benji and I drowned millions of years ago, but that's fate... And now I have another chance to get revenge on Gina Diggers, the one who sent me back in time!" He stopped smiling and his eyes hardened. "But first, I do have to keep my promise to Ryoga and kill you." Smirking, the big guy taunted the two that glared at him. "Just like I killed those two girls."

"YOU! PREPARE TO DIE!" Ranma yelled as his eyes practically glowed while he jumped at Peachbody, who jumped up to meet him. Even with his rage at a peak, Ranma still managed to keep a clear enough of a head to avoid the kick that Peachbody lashed at him. Grabbing the leg, his fingers dug into the muscles, tearing at the flesh as his Ki sharpened his fingers to a point that made any blade seem dull in comparision.

Peachbody growled his eyes squeezing shut. What Ryoga had told him hadn't indicated that Ranma was this dangerous. Hell, Ryoga had flat-out stated that Ranma couldn't hurt him in this form, what had changed?

Flashback...

"Are you sure?"

"Of course." Ryoga smirked at the floating black dog in front of him. "If you meet up with him, you won't have any trouble with him, as long as you don't get hit with hot water."

"Okay, fine, but what's the deal with hot water? And where's Benji?"

Ryoga looked at him and frowned. "Sorry to say, but you and this Benji guy are both dead."

"Dead?!" The dog's eyes widened. "But, I'm still alive!"

"No... You two fell into a pool of water and drowned a long, long time ago."

"Really?"

"Well, that's what the guide said. If you get hit with warm to hot water, you'll turn back to me. Cool and cold water will turn me back into you."

"...Very well. So, if I help you kill him, then I get to go after Gina and kill her?"

"Yes." Ryoga smirked. Saotome would pay for making him go insane. "Just remember, your body is going to be a lot stronger and tougher than his. My fighting skills and your power, we can't be beaten."

"Very well."

"Now then... How do I get out of here?"

"This is your mind, idiot! Just wake up!"

End flashback...

Peachbody crashed onto the ground, grimacing as he flipped to his feet. His eyes widened as he realized that the damage to his legs was severe enough that he couldn't stand on them. 'Dammit!' He cursed mentally. At least he could still fight. "Oh, you think you're good, huh?" He pushed himself off the ground and into the air, above Ranma, who looked up in time to take three Ki blasts to the back, sending him crashing to the ground. 'Now, where's that old woman?' Peachbody looked around as he stayed in the air, looking for the other problem he had to deal with.

"Looking for me?" Peachbody's eyes widened as he heard her voice from his shoulder. "I must say, you really are tough, to keep fighting despite your injuries. If you weren't someone who would destroy the entire village in anger, I might consider dragging you back to China for breeding stock." She then drove her staff into his shoulder so deep that it went through his back and out the front, causing his eyes to widen as he started to lose feeling in his right arm.

Before she could do any more damage, Peachbody grabbed her staff on the bottom and pushed it back out of his shoulder, causing her to lose her balance slightly, just long enough for Peachbody to twist his body and force her to jump off, or risk getting hurt from the fall. "You two... DIE!" His eyes glowed as he held up his left hand, a ball of Ki condensing in it. "Now... AEGIS BOMB!"

Cologne and Ranma's eyes both widened, that was larger than a small car and the power they felt was pretty impressive. "Boy, grab onto something, or you'll get hurt!" Cologne commanded as she quickly went into a spiral pattern. She didn't know if this would stop it, but at the very least, she could deplete it of a lot of its power.

Quickly scrambling to a fallen tree, Ranma dug his fingers into it and grimaced. This was going to suck if whatever she was going to do failed. He may have been tough, but he could feel his control over the Neko-ken slipping. He didn't know what was going to happen next if he lost control, either he'd lose his mind or he'd lose the power he had gained from tapping into this state of mind. It wasn't the first time that he cursed his old man's stupid ideas of training, but right now, Ranma just wished that his old man had known about the meditation techniques to gain control of the Neko-ken.

"Hiryu Shoten Ha!" Cologne yelled as her staff struck upwards, colliding with the giant Ki blast. For a moment it was quiet and then...

The world exploded around her.

She had to close her eyes and crouch down as a tornado, far more powerful and concentrated than even she had anticipated, erupted upwards, pulling at the ground, the trees, the Buddah statue fragments, and even a few pipes out of the ground. Grunting as she tried to keep her feet on the ground, she had to wonder just how strong the fool that launched this really was. "No." She gasped out as she was pulled up and into the air. "Too... Strong..."

Peachbody's eyes widened as he saw the tornado roaring up at him. Looking down, for a moment, he could have sworn he saw a Dragon's mouth as it opened up to eat him. "AUUUURRRGH!" He screamed as the tornado envolped him. He could have avoided it if he wasn't already so torn up from the fight already. Covering his face, he tried to lessen what damage he was taking to himself. "NNNGH!" For some reason, he felt himself getting more and more worn out as debris slammed into him from various angles, his eyes widened and he gasped as a large log slammed into his ribs. "This... This isn't possible..." He gasped as his world started to go black.

Ranma grimaced as he felt the tornado attempt to pull him into it. 'What kind of technique can do this?!' He thought to himself as he clung desperately to the tree. If it got pulled out of the ground, he'd be in real trouble though. As he felt his strength ebb, the control he had over the Neko-ken slipping away completely, the tornado died away with a snap, the spinning winds ending as quickly as they had started, all objects in the air hovered for a moment, before gravity finally reasserted itself and pulled everything to the ground.

Ranma grunted as a log hit him on the back, that had hurt, but at least he could still feel his feet. 'After all,' he thought to himself, 'what kind of weakling gets killed from a log falling on them?' Crawling out from underneath it, he groaned and slumped against the tree, feeling as though his old man had sparred with him for ten hours straight. He could easily attribute most of his exhaustion to controlling the Neko-ken, the scrolls he had read mentioned that feeling like this was actually normal. "Note to self," he muttered, "get more control over this dammed technique."

"I agree..." A voice said, causing him to look to the side, where Cologne was, looking worse for wear. Her skin, hair and clothes were burnt, cut and slightly torn up from the attack.

"Surprised you're still alive."

Chuckling, the old woman nodded. "I'm older than some countries, boy, and I've survived attacks like that before." She looked up and her eyes narrowed as she saw a prone figure laying face-down on the ground in the middle of a spiral crater. "Excuse me, I need to take care of him." She knew that when he recovered he'd be an even bigger threat than he already was. She had thought that the rumors of people going insane when they fell into that pool was just rumors. Now that she knew, she couldn't take any risks. She grimaced as she hobbled forward, her body felt horrible, and her insides felt like she had just been put into a blender and set on puree, but she could recover. She wasn't sure if Shampoo had survived that attack, and she was kicking herself mentally over not checking before attacking this fool, emotions were dangerous things.

"Why?"

She turned to him with a sharp look, one that made him reel back slightly. "Fool. He has a Jusenkyo curse, one that's horrible. There's no cure for a curse once you have one, if the curse wasn't so dangerous, I'd lock him in that form." She knew there were ways to block Ki, but it was better to kill him than let the fool have a chance to get his strength back. "Sometimes, the curses drive people insane, not from getting a curse, but from what the curse itself is. He's unlucky enough to have one like that. And... It's more merciful to kill him and put him out of his misery than to let him live."

Ranma didn't say anything, he didn't want to kill Ryoga, but after what happened to Grave, he really couldn't say no to what she had planned. "..." He was silent, not able to say anything one way or the other.

Cologne nodded as she hobbled over to the prone figure. A few pressure points would make his heart explode and that would be that. When she got within a foot of Peachbody, his body suddenly moved, his arm lashing out as a wave of uncontrolled Ki lashed out, slamming into her, sending her flying back into a toppled tree. "You... WILL PAY!" The dual voices of Peachbody and Ryoga screamed as he forced himself up with one hand. "I... Will..." He grunted as he forced his torn up leg to work enough to stand on it. "K..." He grunted, his face looking like tapioca pudding, his left eye black and swollen as he slowly limped towards Ranma, who was struggling to get back to his feet after getting hit with the edge of that wave burst.

"To think..." He coughed a couple of times before reaching out to grab Ranma with his right arm. Ranma ducked the slow-moving arm before rushing up to Peachbody and punching him in the chest a couple of times. "What's the matter?" The larger being sneered as he grabbed Ranma's shoulder with his left hand and squeezed, causing Ranma to grit his teeth as his shoulder was dislocated. "You were much stronger not too long ago, what happened to all that strength?!" He then moved his right arm back and grabbed Ranma by the throat, lifting him up with his right hand and pulling his left one back, charging up some Ki into it. "At this range, fool, you won't survive." Considering how weak he seemed, Peachbody was almost guaranteed a kill.

Before he could fully charge his Ki and fire it, Peachbody stumbled slightly as he felt something hit the back of his head, turning, he saw the purple-haired Amazon glaring at him as she picked up another rock. "You... You survived?" He could see that she was still in horrible shape, blood was flowing freely down her body, but the mere fact that she was able to keep moving was nothing short of astonishing.

"Shampoo... Not lose... To you." She growled and threw another rock. Or attempted to as her leg gave out on her, causing her to fall to her knees. Oh, she knew that it was stupid to try and take on that monster. Even as hurt as he was, he had managed to beat down on both her great-grand-mother and the boy that had defeated her earlier. She really didn't have a chance in hell against someone that good.

Peachbody sneered at her. "Looks like you already did." He turned back to Ranma, who was smirking at him. "What are you... ARRGH!" He groaned as Ranma wrapped his legs around Peachbody's arm before knife-thrusting his good hand into Peachbody's viens near the wrist, causing his weakened hand to spasm lightly and let him go. "You... DIE!" He screamed, glaring at Ranma as he quickly charged Ki before Ranma could react.

A force of power struck him in the back, sending him flying face-first into a tree, and making him scream out in pain. "ARRRGH!" Falling to his knees, he turned and looked in the direction he came from. "Who? What the?" His eyes widened before he sneered. "Doesn't anyone that I kill ever fucking stay dead!?"

"G...Grave?" Ranma couldn't believe his eyes. If the situation wasn't so serious, he'd be blushing as her clothes were practically gone, there was only enough left on her body to keep her from being completely nude, and even then, he could have sworn he saw her right breast completely.

Grave sneered at Peachbody while holding her hands in front of her, magical energy condensing between her palms. "I would be... If I wasn't able to get a barrier up in place in time." The amount of magic in her hands was dangerous, she knew it, but she really didn't have any choice. "You... You will die..." She didn't really care about Gina, but to see Ranma as hurt as he was, she couldn't stand it. "Elemental STORM!" She screamed as the ball of energy was unleashed towards the injured cursed human.

Peachbody tried to dodge, he really did, but his body was hurting so much that he could do nothing but look on in horror as the spell connected with his body, causing him to scream as he felt lightning, ice and fire tear into his body, causing him to jerk, twist and fall over as the spell ravaged his body.

Panting as she saw her spell do its work, Grave's eyes started to close as she stumbled forward. "Ran..." She mumbled out as she fell forward, passing out from the events of the day.

(---)

Groaning as she felt consciousness return to her, Grave cracked her eyes open, immediately regretting it from the amount of light that hit her eyes. 'Nnn... Dammit, that is the last time I go drinking.' She blinked a couple of times and thought about it. 'Wait a minute... I don't drink. So, what the heck happened?' She thought to herself as she tried to sit up, only to gasp in pain as her side was killing her. "Oww."

"Grave?" A familiar voice spoke up as the curtain next to her bed was pulled to the side. "Hey, don't move, okay? You're lucky you're alive." Ranma smiled at her, his left arm in a sling.

She teared up as she saw him. "Ranma..." A moment later, Ranma was by her side, letting her hug him tightly and cry. "Was so worried!" She gasped out between sobs.

"It... It's okay. I... I was worried about you, to be honest. I thought... I thought you died."

Before Grave could answer a new voice spoke up. "Oh, is she awake now?"

"Yeah, doc, she is." Grave blinked as a man in a dark gray, almost black, Gi and glasses walked into the room, looking over the two.

"Who?"

"Oh, my appologies. My name is Ono Tofu and I'm the doctor of this small clinic." The man said as he pulled the sheets off of her. "Please just wait a moment, I need to make sure that everything's in place."

"Someone named Kasumi came across us, Grave and helped me get you here." Ranma was just thankful that the park wasn't too far away from this place.

"What about the others?"

"The Amazons already left and Ryoga..." Ranma sighed as he thought about his friend and rival from middle school.

"Well, from what I was told, he attacked you and used lethal intent the whole time," the doctor spoke up as he finished checking Grave's ribs out. "You two will be fine, just take it easy for a few days and your foot and arm should heal. And as for you, young lady, try not to over-exert yourself for awhile, your ribs aren't in the best shape right now."

Grave blinked as she looked at him. "You're letting us go?"

He smiled at her. "You aren't in any critical danger, Ranma has my number in case something happens, and I'm sure that you'd rather spend time at home rather than in a hospital room, right?"

Grave nodded at that, she would rather be at home with Ranma than be here. "Okay."

Ranma smiled at her and lifted her up slowly. "Come on, let's go home."

"Sure."

"Uhh... Maybe you should put some pants on first." Ranma flushed as he realized that she wasn't wearing anything under the shirt she was in.

Grave chuckled and blinked as a thought came to her. "Isn't this the way we met?"

"Huh... Yeah, it is..."

"Besides, I like where your hands are." She purred at him, smirking as he sweated. "Come on."

"Uh... Okay."

Tofu shook his head and sighed as he watched them leave his clinic. 'They'll be okay.' He thought to himself as they walked off into the sunset. 'Hope things work out for them.'

-FIN

____________________________________________________________

A few notes now...

What? You honestly thought I was going to kill Grave? This is her story after all, why would I do that?

I blame Deathwings for the inspiration for Elemental Storm. It was something he wrote on TFF that got me thinking, actually.

Sorry for the LOOOOONG delay on this. I actually started working on this chapter shortly after the last one was posted, but Real Life, Writer's Block, a HORRIBLE winter and other things conspired against me to keep me from getting this out.

Plus, I had to go and re-work the final part of this chapter out. I found that I didn't like it at all, the way I did it before.

Well, that's all. I hope you enjoyed Grave's New Life.


End file.
